ASTROTRILOGY 1, 2 & 3
Choreographic performance-installations
by Simo Kellokumpu
in collaboration with
Vincent Roumagnac (1/2/3), Nao Yazawa (1/2/3) & Thomas Westphal (3)
pompom
Tokyo Arts and Space, Tokyo, 2018
Documentation: video/4'
ASTROTRILOGY is a constellation of three 'performance-installation' works by Finnish choreographer-performer Simo Kellokumpu in collaboration with French artist Vincent Roumagnac, Japanese manga artist Nao Yazawa, and Helsinki-based German artist Thomas Westphal. The artistic process was carried out in Tokyo, Paris, and San Francisco.
Each episode of the trilogy emerges from inhabiting the contextual and geographic framework in which the working process takes place. All three pieces examine in various scales the choreographic relations between corporeality and materiality through place–responsive embodied practice. In the working process, the notion of place is extended towards outer space and its objects, and thus in these works galactic movements, forces, energies, and anti/materiality affect the investigation of the human embodiment.
The works are developed in dialogue with contemporary speculative fiction, emerging interplanetary culture, material from astrobiology, and the notion of queer(ing) space.
Each episode of the Astrotrilogy is complemented by the realization of a manga booklet in collaboration with Nao Yazawa. The manga outcome is a part of each of the three final installations.
Each opus of the project Astrotrilogy can be shown separately, or simultaneously as a whole.
The final version of the installation of the whole project comprising the three episodes will be ready to be set and shown in 2021/2022.
Earlier installations of Astrotrilogy
• I pompom, Tokyo Art and Space, Tokyo, 2018 • I pompom, Augusta Gallery, Helsinki, 2018 • I pompom, Uniarts, Stockholm, 2018 • I pompom, TeaK, Helsinki, 2019 • I pompom, VBK0, When It Waxes and Wanes group show, Vienna, 2020 • II ri:vr (ep.1), Petite Galerie, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, 2019 • Astrotrilogy, Poster, 9 posters group show, Talion Gallery, Tokyo, 2020 • I pompom, Pengerkatu 7 Työhuone, Helsinki, 2020 • III åstra (ep. 1), Side Step Festival, Zodiak, Helsinki, 2021 •II ri:vr (ep.1), Kohta Gallery / Bad House festival, Helsinki, 2021
The Astrotrilogy project has been generously supported by:
Arts Promotion Center Finland, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Institut Finlandais Paris, Cité Internationale des Arts Paris, Tokyo Arts and Space, Mad House Helsinki, HIAP Helsinki, Kohta Gallery Helsinki, Zodiak Helsinki, VBKO Vienna, Multiple Spirits Tokyo-Vienna, Performing Arts Research Centre Helsinki.