Upcoming exhibitions

Gustafsson&Haapoja: Museum of Becoming / 3 April–16 August, 2020 (Postponed until later)

Museum of Becoming is Gustafsson&Haapoja’s first major museum exhibition in Finland. Encompassing both of HAM’s large arched halls, the exhibition calls for new ways of thinking about humanity and its relationship with the environment, other species, community and future. The three-part exhibition includes the installation Museum of Nonhumanity, the collection intervention Remnants and the artists’ new video installation Becoming.

Completed in 2016 and winner of the state prize for media art, Museum of Nonhumanity is an imaginary museum dedicated to the violent history of differentiating between human and animal. In Remnants, art works and items from the City of Helsinki’s collections show the figure of the human as a frail and undefined part of a landscape dominated by the larger forces of history, nature and time. The video installation Becoming focuses on the moment of necessary social transformation in the face of the climate crises and asks what modes of becoming otherwise are emergent in the present. The exhibition will be accompanied by the publication of Bud Book: A Manual for Earthly Living. The exhibition is part of the Helsinki Biennial programme.

Mario Rizzi / 12 June-September 27, 2020

The ‘BAYT’ trilogy by the award-winning filmmaker Mario Rizzi (born 1962 in Italy) was named after the Arabic word for home, expanding the concept of ‘house’ and ‘home.’ ‘Home’ is seen as something transcending the tangible nature of a ‘house’ as a structure consisting of rooms and walls, and it is based on experiences of both belonging and longing, offering a link to permanence and identity amidst social and personal changes.

The three parts of the trilogy screened at HAM Auditorium, ‘Al Intithar’ (The Waiting) (2013), ‘Kauther’ (2014) and ‘The Little Lantern’ (2019), showcase multifaceted social situations with themes like exile, political activism and collaboration through the points of view of central female protagonists. Rizzi’s relationship with the characters in his films is close and intimate. The documentary pieces explore people’s everyday lives in refugee camps, at home and among the people they interact with, highlighting personal stories that have a strong relationship with both the local political upheavals in the eastern and western areas of the Mediterranean and broader developments in world politics. The exhibition is connected to the Helsinki Biennial programme, in which Mario Rizzi is also one of the artists featured in Vallisaari in the summer of 2020.

Katharina Grosse / 8 October 2020–September, 2021

German artist Katharina Grosse (b. 1961) is internationally known for actively exploring ever new possibilities of how and where a painting can appear in our lives and examining the impact of painting in present-day reality. At HAM Helsinki Art Museum she will be taking over the main exhibition halls on the upper level to present two new large-scale installations, defying the two-dimensional conventions of painting. One of the works she will be painting on site, using her powerful and raw signature colours.

Grosse will transform the exhibition halls radically. She will create immersive spaces, engaging in an active correspondence with the museum’s architecture and focusing on painting as a process and intervention. As they move within the works, the visitors are invited to become active participants.

Perttu Saksa / 13 November–spring 2021

The subject of the pictures that make up photographer Perttu Saksa’s (b. 1977) exhibition is the estate of sculptor Laila Pullinen (1933–2015). Saksa’s intensive style of photography captures the tools and personal items used by the artist known for her strong personality. The result is a new world of pictures created between two artists in which you can feel the presence of both.

Perttu Saksa is the winner of the 2014 Fotofinlandia Prize and the 2018 design competition for former president Mauno Koivisto’s grave memorial. HAM Helsinki Art Museum’s collections include works from both Perttu Saksa and Laila Pullinen.

The Artists of Lallukka /13 November 2020–August 2021

Built with funds bequeathed by Juho and Maria Lallukka, the Lallukka Artists’ Home in Helsinki’s Etu-Töölö was completed in 1933. Among the first artists to move into the house were Eero Nelimarkka, Ester Helenius and Ellen Thesleff. Since then, over 130 visual artists have lived and worked in Lallukka. The walls of Lallukka have sheltered many notable Finnish painters and sculptors over the years, from Eva Cederström to Kain Tapper. Even the young Tove Jansson spent some of her years as a student in her father Viktor Jansson’s studio home in Lallukka. As such, the life of the Artists’ Home is intriguingly tied to Finnish art history and broader social phenomena.

Curated by art historian Marja Lahelma, PhD, the exhibition focuses on the works of visual artists who lived in Lallukka. The exhibition will feature approximately 80 works from artists who lived there in different periods, from 1933 all the way to present day. The majority of the works are from HAM Helsinki Art Museum’s collection. In connection with the exhibition, Parvs Publishing Ltd and HAM will be publishing a richly illustrated book on the artists of Lallukka, which is based on Marja Lahelma’s research.

HAM Gallery

The HAM Gallery showcases Finnish art and rising artists. The exhibitions are chosen based on an application process and displayed for a period of seven weeks. All HAM Gallery exhibitions are always free of charge.

 

Exhibitions at HAM gallery in 2020

21.1.-8.3.2020
Corinna Helenelund

21.3.-26.4.2020
Enni Suominen

9.5.-21.6.2020
Iiris Kaarlehto and Inka Kynkäänniemi,

27.6.-9.8. 2020
Laura Wesamaa

15.8.-27.9.2020
Hemmo Siponen

3.10.-15.11. 2020
Dylan Ray Arnold and Océane Bruel

21.11.2020-10.1.2021
Inka Bell