Marguerite Humeau Nominated for the Turner Prize

Artist Marguerite Humeau has been nominated for the 2026 Turner Prize for her exhibition Torches, which was recently on view at HAM Helsinki Art Museum and at ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art.

The Turner Prize jury was impressed by Humeau’s cinematic exhibition-making, and her engagement with ecological and existential themes through inventive forms, speculative scenarios and dynamic shifts in scale.

Her work will be on view at Teesside University’s MIMA, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, in autumn 2026 as part of the Turner Prize exhibition, alongside work by the three other nominees: Simeon Barclay, Kira Freije, and Tanoa Sasraku.

Organised by Tate, the Turner Prize is one of the world’s best-known prizes for the visual arts, aiming to promote public debate around new developments in contemporary British art. Established in 1984, the prize is named after the radical painter JMW Turner (1775–1851) and is awarded each year to a British artist for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work. The Turner Prize winner will be awarded £25,000 with £10,000 awarded to the other shortlisted artists.

An ambitious exhibition at HAM

The exhibition Marguerite Humeau: Torches was on view at HAM Helsinki Art Museum from 21 November 2025 to 15 March 2026, marking the Finnish debut of this rising star of the international art scene.

A holistic sensory experience, Torches explored our shared origins and alternative futures. Sculptures and installations inspired by natural forms were animated through sound and light, creating a layered and poetic narrative. 

Through selected bodies of works, the exhibition unfolded like an opera with various scenes, each telling a speculative story. What if humans would become collective beings, attempting to synchronise with all life forms? In her work Marguerite Humeau examines the formation of life, ancient human history and possible scenarios for how life will survive in the future.  

The exhibition was curated by HAM’s Museum Director Arja Miller. It was a collaboration with ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art in Denmark.

Marguerite Humeau (born 1986 in Cholet, France; lives and works in London) uses a wide range of materials in her beautifully detailed works that vary from 150-year-old walnut to hand-blown glass, from alabaster to cyanobacteria, and from beeswax to wasp venom, just to mention a few. She primarily works with sculpture and immersive installations, often incorporating sound and light. In her art, she creates scenarios that spark imaginings of alternative worlds.  

Helsinki to host a new public artwork by Marguerite Humeau

The City of Helsinki has approved HAM Helsinki Art Museum’s proposal to commission a public artwork from Marguerite Humeau for the Keski-Pasila district. HAM is curating this ambitious, community-centred artwork, which will be sited in Höyrypuisto, a park in the area’s new residential neighbourhood. Humeau describes the work as an exploration of the “age of synchronisation”, reflecting on how communities form, what forces bind them together, and how stories that matter to them evolve over time.

The Guardian of Our Community unfolds as a contemporary ritual: an enacted choreography of bells. At its heart stands a monumental sculpture composed of over two hundred cast-aluminium bells, referencing both the bells worn by herds of reindeer and foxglove blooms. The sculpture will be placed atop a mound planted with climbing and binding species, allowing it both to blend into the park’s design and to rise as a landmark for the new district.

The artwork also incorporates an interactive element: hundreds of hand-held bell instruments will be gifted to the Keski-Pasila primary school, expanding the sculpture into a communal ritual. Through workshops with pupils, Humeau will guide the creation of a soundscape of synchronicity. In time, the original ritual might gradually fade, opening space for new rituals to emerge – cultivated and carried forward by the community. In this way, the work transforms the park into a resonant organism, continually shaped by those who inhabit it.

The acquisition of this public artwork for Höyrypuisto Park in the Ratapihankorttelit area is made possible by Helsinki’s percent-for-art principle. HAM oversees the curation of all public artworks accessioned to the City of Helsinki’s art collection.