Helsinki Biennial 2025 Announces Full Artist List and Curatorial Vision

Esplanade Park. Photographer Lauri Rotko. (c) Helsinki Partners

3rd Helsinki Biennial
Shelter: Below and beyond, becoming and belonging
8 June – 21 September 2025 (Press Preview June 5 / Opening June 6 – 8)
Helsinki Biennial

Helsinki Biennial has announced the 37 artists participating in its third edition, titled Shelter: Below and beyond, becoming and belonging, curated by Blanca de la Torre and Kati Kivinen, and produced by HAM Helsinki Art Museum. The biennial will run from 8 June to 21 September 2025.

Set across Vallisaari Island, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, and for the first time Esplanade Park, the 2025 edition expands the Biennial’s reach into both Helsinki’s natural and urban spaces.

Continuing an established commitment by Helsinki Biennial to a reflection on climate change and the ecological richness  of the Helsinki region, this year’s theme will unfold on Vallisaari Island responding directly to the climate crisis, inviting artists to consider the role of non-human protagonists plants, animals, fungi, and minerals. De la Torre and Kivinen frame the biennial as a space of listening and witnessing, encouraging a shift away from anthropocentrism toward ecological interconnectedness and climate optimism.

In the recently published Press Released they state: “Our intention for this edition is to encourage a shift in thinking, away from anthropocentrism, and towards better understanding of the delicate and severely imbalanced relationship between humankind and nature,” the curators note. “We are continually researching and exploring strategies to engage with contemporary art as a tool for addressing the climate and ecological crisis.”

The 2025 edition features a wide-ranging list of participating artists and collectives, (* new commissions). The full list includes:

Maria Thereza Alves (BR/DE) • Band of Weeds (FI) • Ana Teresa Barboza (PE)* • Sissel M Bergh (Sápmi/NO) • Sara Bjarland (FI/NL)* • Saskia Calderón (EC) • Edgar Calel (GT) • Tania Candiani (MX)* • Regina de Miguel (ES/DE) • Olafur Eliasson (DK/IS) • Carola Grahn (Saepmie/SE)* • Tue Greenfort (DK) • Kalle Hamm (FI) & Dzamil Kamanger (IR/FI) • Tamara Henderson (CA/AU) • Gunzi Holmström (FI)* • Katie Holten (IE/US)* • Ingela Ihrman (SE) • Geraldine Javier (PH)* • Aluaiy Kaumakan (TW) • Kristiina Koskentola (FI/NL) • Yayoi Kusama (JP) • Jenni Laiti (FI/SE) & Carl-Johan Utsi (SE) • LOCUS / Thale Blix Fastvold & Tanja Thorjussen (NO)* • nabbteeri (FI)* • Ernesto Neto (BR)* • Otobong Nkanga (NG/BE) • Giuseppe Penone (IT) • Laura Põld (EE/AT) • Marjetica Potrč (SI) • Kati Roover (EE/FI) • Hans Rosenström (FI)* • Paul Rosero Contreras (EC) • Raimo Saarinen (FI) • Pia Sirén (FI)* • Theresa Traore Dahlberg (SE/BF) • Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas (LT/US) • Juan Zamora (ES)

Through a judicious selection of artists attuned to environmental concerns, new commissions observe and interpret the surrounding nature while also speculating on potential futures:

As visitors arrive by ferry on Vallisaari island, Pia Sirén’s Under Cover (2025) serves as a gateway between the urban scenery of downtown Helsinki and the natural landscapes of the island. Visitors will first encounter, not nature, but a site-specific installation assembled from synthetic recycled materials, depicting a fictional landscape of a blue sky, faraway hills, forests and slopes. Disguising the built structures on Vallisaari’s ferry wharf, Sirén’s gesture is a symbolic attempt to erase human imprints from the landscape.

Nearby, Sara Bjarland’s Stranding (2025) draws inspiration from Vallisaari as a natural refuge and recreational area shared by humans and other species. Bjarland’s bronze sculptural group on the rocky beach takes its shape from inflatable swimming toys. The work brings an ironic and playful twist to the ever-growing presence of plastic waste, while simultaneously paying homage to the creatures they mimic.

Ernesto Neto’s Vallisaari Bird (2025) meanwhile encourages visitors to pause and see through the eyes of a bird, inviting understanding and empathy across species. Neto’s installation consists of a large, bird-shaped tent of a hand-crochet net filled with glass objects and stones collected from the island. His artworks or ‘animal landscapes’ are informed both by the community-focused values of Brazilian dominant culture and by the Indigenous lore of Amazonia, aiming to create a sense of continuity and connection between the human body and the body of nature and Earth.

Exploring the island beyond human senses, Hans Rosenström’s Tidal Tears (2025) sees visitors’ movements activate a soundscape that echoes the island’s natural sounds, both those audible to the human ear and those we cannot normally hear. As visitors move round the work, the sounds move in breath-like cycles reflecting processes of growth and decay – beginning with low murmurs of the soil, then shooting up to the treetops, finally returning to ground level.

Returning to Helsinki’s urban mainland, a new commission by Saepmie artist Carola Grahn appears in HAM’s south gallery. Grahn’s practice examines human estrangement from nature and the destructive legacy of colonialism, with a selection of new textile works from her Notes on Hide: Panorama Series (2025), seeing wool fabric, sinew thread and half a reindeer hide form a steep cliff – or perhaps a violent wave – and a dot transform into the twilight star in the  dark sky. This new commission is complimented by Grahn’s installation on show on Vallisaari, which features a sculpture of a pictorial motif that decorates the drumskin of a Sámi ceremonial drum.

New works in the new location of Esplanade Park include Kalle Hamm & Dzamil Kamanger’s Bug Rugs (2025), a group of four insect hotel sculptures, featuring decorative designs inspired by a traditional Finnish rya rug wool tapestry and a Kurdish kelim rug. Both rug types impart symbolic visual narratives and hold special heritage value, making the work a meeting of cultures and a site of interspecies encounters. Nearby, Geraldine Javier will display a new edition of Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Void  (2025), a community-based installation that combines tree-protecting talismans, plants, and recycled materials. Created during workshops with Helsinki schoolchildren and locals, the work evolves over time, as rust stains the fabrics and seedlings grow and sprawl across the structures.

Helsinki Biennial 2025 is not only an exhibition—it is a catalyst for deeper, systemic change. Aligned with the City of Helsinki’s 2030 carbon neutrality goal, the Biennial embeds sustainable practices through material reuse, slow travel recommendations, and civic partnerships. Artworks from each edition are integrated into the city’s permanent public collection, offering a legacy that lives on long after the exhibition closes.

The addition of Esplanade Park as a venue marks a new chapter in urban engagement, with projects such as Kalle Hamm & Dzamil Kamanger’s Bug Rugs (2025)—insect hotels designed in the visual language of Finnish and Kurdish textile traditions—bringing environmental aesthetics into public consciousness.

More information and details on specific works will be announced in spring 2025.
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