Espoo Museum of Modern Art
EMMA opens its 20th anniversary year with an international group exhibition In Search of the Present
In Search of the Present: On Rootlessness transforms EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art’s spacious galleries into places for reflection and sensory experience, in which notions around belonging and rootlessness are brought into focus. Bringing together installations, conceptual works and participatory pieces by 13 contemporary artists, the exhibition explores how art can offer moments of grounding and connection in the world that is in constant motion.
In Search of the Present is EMMA’s ongoing series of exhibitions examining the key phenomena and questions of our time. This year’s edition asks what it means to seek a physical or emotional place in an era marked by uncertainty, mobility, and disconnection. It presents immersive, large-scale installations alongside more intimate work. Together, the artworks offer a setting for dwelling, listening, and feeling at the threshold of our own experience and the parallel worlds they open.
“Visitors can slow down with Marina Abramović’s participatory work Counting the Rice, immerse themselves in one of Kimsooja’s best-known works To Breathe, that is now created in dialogue with EMMA’s architecture, and become absorbed in the glowing light of Helen Pashgian’s installation”, says EMMA’s Chief Curator Ingrid Orman.
Artists presented in the exhibition are Marina Abramović, Haruka Kashima, Kimsooja, Tarik Kiswanson, Germaine Kruip, Ken Matsubara, Lydia Ourahmane, Helen Pashgian, Jani-Matti Salo, Danh Võ, WAUHAUS x Reality Research Centre with a performance: Nurture, Ian Wilson, and Maaria Wirkkala. Some of the works are selected from the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection. Read more about each work here.
“We are opening EMMA’s twentieth anniversary year with an exhibition that reflects one of our core missions – to create meaningful encounters through art. In Search of the Present offers a setting where visitors can find different ways to reconnect with themselves, each other and with their surroundings”, Orman continues.
In Search of the Present: On Rootlessness invites us to root ourselves, even momentarily, in the shared experience of now. It is curated by EMMA’s Chief Curator Ingrid Orman, Curators Laura Eweis and Pernilla Wiik, and is on view from 14 March 2026 to 7 February 2027. The public opening event of the exhibition is held on Friday 13 March from 5pm to 8pm.
The title In Search of the Present refers to a collection of essays published in 1929 by Finnish author Olavi Paavolainen, in which he reflected on modern identity and experience in a rapidly changing world. Previous editions of the exhibition series were presented in 2016 and 2022.
Our warmest thank you to the supporters of the exhibition: LocalTapiola whose donation enables the realisation of Helen Pashgian’s work, and the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, whose support makes Kimsooja’s installation possible.
