Concert dessiné : Žižek Says!

A unique live-drawing concert at the Finnish Institute on Thursday 12 November 2026 at 8pm

Concert: Žižek Says!

Thursday 12 November 2026 at 8pm

An exceptional live-drawing concert at the Finnish Institute: Ville Ranta, an artist acclaimed for his daring comic books, draws the concert before the audience's eyes. The turbulent duo, made up of accordionist Niko Kumpuvaara and saxophonist-vocalist Joonatan Rautiola, conjures surreal utopias that blend Finnish, French and Ukrainian musical influences.

The main work of the concert, Žižek Says!, is a music theatre piece on the theme of power: the musicians try to trick each other by playing out of tune, the instruments are manipulated like puppets and, at the end, the sung voice takes possession of the musician's body, plunging us into a Žižek-style psychoanalysis. In this work, premiered at the Finnish Institute, composer Miika Hyytiäinen combines humour, the unsuspected potential of the human voice and experimental music theatre.

ARTISTS

Ville Ranta is an award-winning cartoonist. To date, he has published nine graphic novels translated into French by éditions çà et là and Rackham. In Finland, Ville Ranta is best known to the general public as a press cartoonist. Since 2024 he has been a cartoonist for Helsingin Sanomat, the largest daily newspaper in the Nordic countries. His irreverent humour, his boldness in tackling taboos and his expressive, dynamic watercolour style have won over readers.

Niko Kumpuvaara is a Finnish accordionist renowned for his remarkable versatility, from classical to popular and contemporary music. A soloist, composer, arranger and producer, he has taken part in numerous music, theatre and film productions. A prizewinner at several competitions, he has directed several festivals in Finland and taught at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.