Niko Hallikainen: Downward Ascension, SAT 12.9. 18:00 - Alō

Film & live performance

Saturday 12.9. 18.00, Alō

Novelist and performance poet Niko Hallikainen presents his new cinematic poetry performance, premiering at Karhupuisto! Downward Ascension is an epic poem performed alongside a 65-minute slideshow film – a collage of footage collected from the back alleys of cinema/television.

As global power hierarchies are collapsing right now, simultaneously a cryptic corporeal supersystem prepares to give rise to an unprecedented spiritual vibration.

The poet is a feral animal that feeds on Hollywood waste.

The show creates a space for a new type of sensual energy waking amidst the breakdown of worldwide top-down structures. Age-old societal issues are truly worsening at this very moment, and the polycrisis feels as total as a physical death, but there’s so much room for an alternate boom, a kind of kundalini awakening in reverse, because breath is a way to really fuck with the world; to make our own luck.

”When they go low, we go upside down.”

Niko Hallikainen is a Helsinki-based performance poet and novelist. His work has been presented at New York’s Performa Biennial, the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Black Box Teater in Oslo, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki. Hallikainen was named Helsinki’s Writer of the Year in 2023 and received the City of Helsinki’s Artist Award in 2024.

The performance is in English.

Secure your spot now!

🎟️ Ticket categories:

- Festival ticket – €15
A basic admission fee for one screening supports the implementation of the event.

- Patron ticket – €25
Would you like to support the festival more? Choose a patron ticket and support the continuation of the event.

- Solidarity ticket – €10
Students, unemployed, pensioners and other discount groups

We will also be organizing free open screenings in Karhupuisto and Kallio Library. More information on the event homepage.

✨ Come celebrate the last night of the new film festival, urban culture and community with us - see you in September!