Espoo Museum of Modern Art

EMMA addresses the climate crisis in spring 2020

© Ari Karttunen / EMMA
© Ari Karttunen / EMMA

The theme will be addressed in EMMA’s programme and parts of the exhibitions. The museum is also taking continuous steps towards sustainability in order to make EMMA a permanently environmental-friendly operator for our planet.

EMMA’s exhibition programme for the spring is opened by Tacita Dean’s and Nastja Säde Rönkkö’s exhibitions, which direct the gaze into the changes and transience of the environment. Dean explores changes in the environment, the passing of time and how it can be witnessed in our habitat. The films and large-sized blackboard paintings are often based on natural phenomena, such as cloud formation or solar eclipse. Dean studies the complex birth processes of matters and phenomena to counter the fast tempo of today’s digital society.

Environmental annihilation and the climate crisis are also at the core of Nastja Säde Rönkkö’s exhibition for those yet to be. Rönkkö’s media piece is one person’s statement, where she travels to destinations destroyed or on the verge of destruction at the hands of humans.

“We care about our operating environment, and we are doing our part by being involved in the joint effort to fight climate change. There is still room for development in our own activities as a museum when it comes to sustainable development, and this work will continue. We also want to take part in the discussion around responsibility. Our programme includes events and exhibitions, which allow us an opportunity to address this topical theme with our visitors,” says Museum DirectorPilvi Kalhama.

EMMA’s climate-related programme can be read on EMMA’s website from January 2020 onwards.

The climate crisis is the subject of the 25 March EMMA Talks titled The Climate is Changing. What can we do? In the discussion moderated by Kalhama, experts ponder what can still be done through means of art and research and on the individual level.

EMMA is participating in the One million trees to Finland initiative in spring 2020. The project by artist Nina Backman seeks to increase the number of trees by involving citizens in planting them. EMMA and exhibition centre WeeGee are collaborating as donors and distributors of seedlings.

Sustainable development is one the central values of the City of Espoo. The city has also been named the most sustainable city in Europe in an international benchmark study, and its goal is to become carbon-neutral by 2030.

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