How the Project Works?

The project has three phases, and you may participate in one, two or all of them!

1. Research Phase

We collect personal stories from members of the queer community. Questions of the Research Phase (more details in the survey form):

Queer Anti-Hero
Places of the Autonomous Zone
Local Symbols and Iconography
Stories and Memories
What Should We Protest or Demand?

The purpose of these questions is to think of Kuopio through the lens of the queer community’s perspective and rewrite its history. Queer people of Kuopio, also the ones who have lived here in the past, are welcome to answer the survey by 30th April!

The survey can be found here.

2. Execution Phase

Based on the collected stories, we create the public ceremony together. Local participants shape how the ritual looks, sounds, and feels. The project does not impose a fixed image of queerness. Instead, it adapts to Kuopio’s specific histories, struggles, and culture.

Interested in taking part in the execution phase? Please contact us to:

Onur Tayranoǧlu, Lead artist & facilitator
E-mail: tayranoglu.onur@gmail.com / Whatsapp phone number: +358 41 3260693

Sohvi Roivainen, Production Manager, ANTI Festival
E-mail: sohvi@antifestival.com / Phone: +358 44 902 4310

And/or join the QAZ (Kuopio) Whatsapp Community here!

3. Public event on 18th September

The exact time and location of the event will be confirmed later this year. The Queer Autonomous Zone (Kuopio) is open and free of charge to all queer people and their friends!

Queer Autonomous Zone to Kuopio

Events, News17.3.202618.3.2026

Queer Autonomous Zone (Kuopio) is a new collaboration project by the artist Onur Tayranoǧlu and ANTI Festival. The project will produce a new site-specific performance, a public ceremony that will take place in September during the 2026 ANTI Festival. We now invite all the queers of Kuopio to participate in the project!

The Queer Autonomous Zone is a ceremony that reclaims the format of national celebrations, such as independence days. But instead of honoring a nation or a state, this ceremony celebrates queer life, memory, and resistance by celebrating the Queer Autonomous Zone’s independence in Kuopio.

The project is based on the idea that queer people have always created their own “autonomous zones.” These are not official or permanent territories. They are spaces of care, survival, and solidarity. They can appear in homes, clubs, chatrooms, friendships, protests, or even in small moments of eye contact between people.

This ceremony will temporarily transform the Market Square into such a zone through our queer bodies, stories, and collective presence. The event is open to all queers and their friends.