SKULKESKOLEN
The Fifth Fire by Tom K. Kemp
13:00
Part of SKULKESKOLEN, 2–6 September 2026
Fire has gone on strike. Until a new agreement between people and fire is reached, nothing burns: no fossil fuels, no wildfires, no factories, no cigarettes.
The Fifth Fire is a participatory role-playing game for 6–20 players who take on the roles of fire, human negotiators, and the world itself, collectively imagining the consequences of the strike, the demands of fire, and the terms of any new agreement. Every session is a political simulation, producing a different, post-strike version of the world.
Two public sessions run during SKULKESKOLEN, each lasting approximately three hours and open to public registration. Bringing together general participants, invited guests, regional specialists and programme contributors, each session creates a temporary collective of up to 20 players, ensuring a diversity of perspectives and experiences. Using simple lo-fi, low-tech mechanics, the game is accessible to anyone aged 12 and up, regardless of prior experience.
At its core, The Fifth Fire asks what kind of relationship humans have built with fire, and what it might mean to renegotiate that relationship entirely. Framing fire simultaneously as a geologic force, a colonial technology, a metabolic process and a condition of extraction, the game invites participants to collectively reimagine Bergen’s history of fires, as well as its relationship to the petrochemical industry and the forms of life around it.
Tom K. Kemp is a British artist who employs roleplaying game design, animation and filmmaking to tell collaborative stories about complexity and the humans who constitute it. The Fifth Fire is Tom’s fifth roleplaying game, currently on a playtesting tour around the US and Europe before formal publication later this year. He is currently developing it at CAPC Bordeaux as part of Fluxus Magnetic Residencies. Tom has previously worked with the EYE Filmmuseum, Amsterdam; La Casa Encendida, Madrid; the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; La Ferme du Buisson, Noisiel; CAPC Bordeaux; and QUAD, Derby. Residencies include Cité des Arts International, Paris; Triangle-Astérides, Marseille; and Rupert, Vilnius.
A first session took place on Friday 4 September, 18:00–21:00.
Also part of SKULKESKOLEN
Sunday 6 Sept: Ase Brunborg Lie hike · Hanni Kamaly workshop · Khartoum
Saturday 5 Sept: Dr. Memory Biwa · Kathryn Yusoff and Nolan Oswald Dennis · C.A.N.V.A.S
Credits
The first edition of SKULKESKOLEN is co-curated by Jade Meili Barget and Nora O’ Murchú and developed in partnership with the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Limerick in Ireland. The programme is generously supported by Culture Ireland, as part of Cultúr 2026: Sharing Ireland’s Culture, the culture programme for Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2026, Fritt Ord, KORO, Kulturrådet/Arts Council Norway, Mondriaan Fund and Sparebanken Norge.
This event is supported by Mondriaan Fund.
Design: Minami Shimakage.
