Elisa Itkonen

@antifestival - 25 years of international contemporary arts in Kuopio, Finland 🖤 ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival 15.-20.9.2026

Main Programme:

Onur Tayranoǧlu (TR): Queer Autonomous Zone (Kuopio) @onurtayranoglu
Keioui Keijaun Thomas (US): Come Hell or High Femmes: The Dolls Rise @keioui
Julischka Stengele (AT): Offering Space @studio.stengele
Kira O’Reilly (IE): Untitled Performance Lecture (a gift, redux) @untitledbodies
Tuomas Laitinen (FI): Life is temporary
Tomi Leppänen (FI): (empty space) @tom1leppanen
Sara Grotenfelt, Lotta Hildén & Tuisku Ojanperä (FI): Kids’ Station
Katja Hänninen & Laura Jänicke (FI): stoneless
Festival Club: Elsi Sloan (FI) @l.c_c.l

Partner Programme:

Dance Theatre Tsuumi & Sonja Jokiniemi (FI): Kyynelpaikka workshop @tanssiteatteritsuumi @sonjajoki
Tekstin talo (FI): Learning Lab for Text Workers
Kuopio Art Weeks (FI) @tekstintalo
ILME (FI), Adam Kinner & Christopher Willes (CA): MANUAL (in Oulu) @kulttuuriosuuskuntailme @adamkinner___ @christopherwilles

🖤

“From the very beginning, participating in the ANTI Festival has been an experience that revolutionises one’s thinking and understanding of the arts and the world. The anniversary programme explores alternative ways of seeing and presenting, and highlights perspectives on the festival’s history, the present, and the future.

In addition to the anniversary year, the programming has been driven by the festival’s ongoing desire to make space for marginalised practices and to envision queer feminist futures in collaboration with artists. Three key, site-specific performance works at the festival all deconstruct, in their own ways, the illusions and assumptions of melancholy associated with queer lives, and build spaces for recovery, social transformation and hope”,

Lead Curator Elisa Itkonen writes in her curatorial notes. @elisaitko

🖤

Graphic design: @tom1leppanen

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