Aistit / coming to our senses

(they/them)

b. 1980 in Finland,

based in Helsinki, Finland

I’m a non-binary performance artist, actor, and writer. In my art, work and everyday life, I try to take care of fragile structures and soft conditions. My thinking is based on intersectional transfeminism, and I try to actively trace where my knowledge/ignorance stems from, and from whom and with whom I have learned; I try to understand continuities of knowing. I try to understand the kinds of continuums I am part of. I try to be aware of my positions and privileges. I practice being a better ally to other marginalised people. I practice giving way and listening, and taking action. In my work I try to think of questions related to accessibility: who can take part in this performance, who can afford it, for whom is there space, for whom it might be safe to be here. I think about consent in every step of the process. I believe one can say no at any point, it is self-evident. That is important. I want to make space for sounds that are usually not listened to. I want to make space for ambiguities and impossibilities, obscurity and incomprehensibilities. I want to make space. I am interested in areas of dimness and the behinds of structures, miracles.

Kokko often works in collaboration with working groups they have convened. Regular important collaborators are sound designer Tari Doris, light designer Meri Ekola, performance artist and translator h m ouramo, dramaturge Even Minn and playwright E.L. Karhu. Their recent works include how to host something as a cloud created for Baltic Circle Festival, Helsinki; the performance Genderfuck – gender poetics, and a series of premieres Näyttely – Exhibition – Vino Potretti (“Queer Portrait”); Fragile Structures, part 1: Humming, premiered at the Turku New Performance festival. Their photographs and videos were seen at Titanik Gallery’s exhibition Between a rock and a hard place there is softness and Mänttä Art Festival. In 2021-2025 Kokko’s work is supported by a five-year artist grant from Arts Promotion Centre Finland.