Sorry, your browser doesn’t support embedded videos. Stories Project Stories 14.08.2026 Towards a Concrete Utopia – an Art Collective Changing the World for Queer People Aslan (left) and Chris Gylee (right). Photo by Mikko Rikala. TEXT Tero Kartastenpää Share: ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS wanted to create a utopia for queer people, choosing Outokumpu as its main setting. With two years of funding from Kone Foundation, artists Aslan and Chris Gylee created a series of works in which participants could learn a queer language and, more broadly, find themselves imagining worlds for people who are not heterosexual. What Is It All About? The 12-part series of artworks With Forests in Our Mouths: Speaking Queer Utopias into Being was created in 2024–2025. Art collective ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS used a range of art forms to explore how the world could be made better for queer people. They performed in Finland and Germany, organised exhibitions, and published work both digitally and in print. They also taught queer people Damiá, a language they developed themselves, around which a community of its own has emerged. Arriving in Outokumpu by bus, you are greeted by a large sign bearing two intertwined symbols for “woman”. “Wow, it’s as if the whole town is dedicated to lesbians,” Aslan remembers thinking when they first saw the sign. In fact, the old mining town uses the symbol for copper in its coat of arms. Aslan and their collaborator Chris Gylee fell in love with the place in North Karelia. It has proved fertile ground for their art collective, ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS, to build queer utopias. For them Outokumpu has become Queer Hill. “For me, the purpose of art is to change what we are able to imagine,” Aslan says. Their starting point is that everyone deserves a good life. In many of their works, they bring people together to consider how that might be achieved. “It plants seeds in the mind.” “The grant gave us the freedom to make decisions like adults instead of having to sell our ideas to anyone.” “Finland Opened the Door, and Germany Kicked Us Through It” The formerly Berlin-based artists first spent time at a residency in Outokumpu in 2021. It was their first visit to Finland, and it proved decisive.The fantasy of rural life began to feel possible. Originally from London and Manchester, the theatre-makers had already been increasingly drawn to working in the countryside. Now the couple serve scones in their detached house. They have lived in a former residential area for mine workers since 2023. The small town has a lively cultural scene, with a theatre, festivals, an artist residency and dozens of contemporary dancers. Their first application to Kone Foundation brought a surprise. They were awarded funding for the multi-part work With Forests in Our Mouths: Speaking Queer Utopias into Being for 2024–2025. “Finland opened the door, and Germany kicked us through it.” In Germany, long-term funding is difficult to secure and tends to be fragmented. In Finland, they were able to focus on a large-scale body of work. Their aim was to use different media to create queer myths exploring whether LGBTQ+ people could have the same rights as everyone else. They originally proposed eight chapters in the project work plan, but, inspired by the grant, expanded the number to twelve. A single planned novella, for example, was joined by two other publications: a collection of poetry and an almanac. They performed at numerous festivals in Finland and Germany. The pair took part in solo and group exhibitions. There was an audio work, as well as films. “The grant gave us the freedom to make decisions like adults instead of having to sell our ideas to anyone,” Aslan says. “We’re constantly taking small steps towards a concrete utopia.” Reimagining Queer History The pair show us around their house. In their studio, a clothes rail is packed with costumes made for performances. Outside, they have filled the lawn with trees, shrubs and flowers. “There is often an assumption that queer people should naturally live in cities, and that the countryside is unsafe for us,” Aslan says. Through their art, ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS seek to challenge these assumptions. Outokumpu has felt safe. They have more of a social life there than they did in Berlin. In their science fiction, they have created a future forest planet called New Karelia. Their imagined worlds have also begun to become reality. “We’re constantly taking small steps towards a concrete utopia,” Gylee says. At Outokumpu’s Kaivos Festival, they presented old photographs of mine workers in their performance Remembering Colours, reimagining everyone in the photographs as queer people from New Karelia. They also ran a queer history group at the library and realised how necessary this kind of reimagining is, as LGBTQ+ history has so often been erased. Plans are under way for a small festival for queer artists, with the City of Outokumpu helping to find a venue. A science-fiction musical is also in the works. Chris Gylee (left) and Aslan (right). Photo: Mikko Rikala “What matters is being honest and looking after one another.” Art is not the Most Important Thing They are also raising awareness of their own queer language through weekly language classes. Damiá, a language Aslan has been developing since childhood, is dedicated to queer people. The pair use Damiá to talk about everyday matters and incorporate it into many of their works. A community of enthusiastic learners has grown up around the language, with members all over the world. “Some people in the community explore their own relationship with queerness through the language,” Aslan says. For Aslan, one of the highlights of the project came when Gylee sang karaoke in Damiá at Lou Gallery in Helsinki in spring 2025. For the seventh chapter, Echo Ballads / Pasián Esba, they translated pop songs into the new language. “The karaoke idea was mine, so I’ve only got myself to blame,” Gylee says. During the project, their belief in their principal art form, theatre, grew stronger, as did their belief in its ability to bring people together to imagine things in the same space. “We try to be ourselves on stage. We’re not trying to impress anyone; we’re trying to create a friendly atmosphere,” Aslan says. They have a mantra that helps steer their work in a positive direction. “Art isn’t the most important thing, and it never will be,” Gylee says. “What matters is being honest and looking after one another,” Aslan says. By following these principles, they believe the art itself ultimately becomes better too. They believe With Forests in Our Mouths has made a difference. Although they have not performed to audiences of thousands, the lives of some participants have changed. They are interested in slow change. “Keep going, keep going for years and years and years and years, and keep pushing the work forward with the same ideas,” Aslan says. At the Saari Residence, run by Kone Foundation, they created a book of which only three copies were printed. Two of them are travelling around the world, with readers posting them on to the next person. Around 90 people joined the list of prospective readers, but so far the books have passed through the hands of only just over ten people. You can still add your name to the waiting list if you would like to become part of the project years from now. Chris Gylee (left) and Aslan (right). Photo: Mikko Rikala Contact: info@oncewewereislands.com A multi-chaptered durational artwork in which each chapter offers an entry into the artistic enquiry of the overall work. The chapters can be accessed in various times and places and in various different combinations. Audiences may see all, some, or just one chapter, and in any order. They are given space to overlay their own interpretations and to make their own connections between the different interconnected parts. The term is inspired by novelist Olga Tokarczuk’s description of her non-linear novel Flights as a ‘constellation novel’, and expanded for a multidisciplinary artform. Aslan (left) and Chris Gylee (right). Photo by Mikko Rikala.