Espoo Museum of Modern Art
Always on display
Saastamoinen Foundation Collection Exhibition Dialogues
The collection exhibition presents Finnish and international contemporary art from the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection.
The premise of the Dialogues exhibition has been the pairs or groups of works that enter into a free dialogue with one another. The display, focusing on the foundation’s recent acquisitions, encourages to consider the works in relation to one another and to freely draw parallels between them. The exhibition is an invitation to engage in dialogue or conversation, that will hopefully foster myriad interpretations. The collection exhibition also includes a media space displaying Saastamoinen Foundation’s new media art acquisitions.
Saastamoinen Foundation is a globally active partner of art and science. The foundation’s art collection is one of Finland’s most significant collections of Finnish and international art. It originated in the 1910s as the private collection of a Kuopio-based industrialist family in eastern Finland. The foundation was established in 1968 to promote social progress through art and science and support the expansion, preservation and presentation of the collection. The collection is owned by the Saastamoinen family foundation and deposited at EMMA. It currently comprises over 3,000 works.
Mobile Guide
Learn more about the artists and their works on the mobile guide!
Media space
Cao Fei: COSplayers (2004)
15.4.2026–16.8.2026
COSplayers showcases young people who have grown up immersed in the world of video games from an early age. In the work, they dress as fantasy characters and move through mundane spaces as if inhabiting a parallel reality. We see them standing in industrial zones, wastelands and between apartment blocks like heroes lost in the wrong world. The work shows how subcultures offer a means of escaping the pressures of everyday life and environments where one does not feel a sense of belonging. At the same time, it reveals how role-playing can momentarily transform ordinary places into something new.
Cao Fei is a Chinese contemporary artist whose work explores the impact of globalisation, virtual worlds and youth culture on identity. She works with video, photography, installation and performance.
The high-tech media space, with its immersive sound system and 4K projection, showcases new acquisitions of media art featured in the Saastamoinen Foundation collection exhibition.
30 Works from the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection
The book 30 Works from the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection showcases Saastamoinen Foundation’s recent acquisitions. The focus is on artists with stirring career who continue to impress with their art, such as Vivian E. Browne, Lee Lozano, and Leena Luostarinen, as well as artists on the verge of making a strong entry or currently making a breakthrough, for example Emma Jääskeläinen, Berenice Olmedo, Aura Saarikoski, and Thảo Nguyên Phan.
Available at EMMA Shop’s store and webshop!
Writers: Ali Akbar Mehta, Camille Auer, Nimco Kulmiye Hussein, Saara Karhunen, Anders Kreuger, Emma Lilja, Aleksandra Oilinki, Vidha Saumya, Seiskan pojat, Sanna Tirkkonen
Graphic design: Tom Backström
Photographs: Ari Karttunen & Paula Virta / EMMA