The season starts with Espoo Day celebrations at the WeeGee Exhibition Centre on Saturday, 31 August. All Espoo Day events are free. You can create graffiti with experienced street artists or walk the streets of Nairobi using VR glasses, and of course you can also explore all our exhibitions for free. For the next weekend, 7–8 September, EMMA has a great programme for families with children as part of Children’s Design Week. The weekend also includes the launch of EMMA’s popular art workshops, held every Saturday throughout the autumn, offering activities for visitors of all ages. 

Be sure to mark your calendar for the screening dates of a video screening of Sounding Board, a performance by artist Tschabalala Self in the Around the Way exhibition. An investigation of emotional communication, gender roles, and power structures in the context of romantic relationships, the performance video will be shown twice in the autumn, on 22 September and 27 October. The first performance will begin with a guided tour of the exhibition, and the second will feature a talk by Ingrid Orman, curator of the exhibition, about Self’s art and the museum’s collaboration with the artist. 

Tschabalala Self, Sounding Board (2021), a commission for the Performa 2021 Biennial. © Walter Wlodarczyk / Performa

One of the early autumn highlights is the opening of a retrospective exhibition by Ulla Wiggen in September. The show consists of key paintings from the Swedish artist’s career spanning 60 years, showcasing her enduring interest in the study of humanity and technical devices. At the EMMA Talks discussion on the opening day, 17 September, the artist will be interviewed by the curator of the exhibition Pernilla Wiik and EMMA director Pilvi Kalhama. On 20 October, professor of abdominal surgery Pauli Puolakkainen will guide visitors on an expert tour of the exhibition, providing an intriguing perspective on Wiggen’s works that feature human anatomy. 

© Paula Virta / EMMA

The autumn season also includes dance and music performances as well as expert talks on a variety of topics. You can learn about the working processes of ceramic artists or discover new ways of appreciating art on Queer tours of the exhibitions. Our popular Art Play for Babies drop-in workshops offer the wonders of art for infants and their parents, and the Art Break programme, designed by Aalto University students of art education, provides fun and creative activities for the entire holiday week. See the full autumn programme here and choose your favourites. For a listing of the guided tours see the Events section in Finnish. Our programme is in Finnish unless otherwise stated in the event description.