Marina Abramović (b. 1946) is widely regarded as one of the most influential performance artists of our time. For more than five decades, she has explored the power of the body and presence in her work. She is known especially for intense performances that test her own physical and mental limits. One of her most iconic pieces, The Artist is Present (2010), ran for over 700 hours across three months. In it, Abramović sat silently at a table in the exhibition space while visitors were invited to sit opposite her and make eye contact. Counting the Rice is both a work of art and an exercise. Visitors are invited to sit at a long table and sort rice and lentils, grain by grain. According to Abramović, the work is a mental exercise that helps sharpen focus and be fully present. 

Haruka Kashima’s (b. 1963) wax chalk drawing Museum combines imagination with sketches made from observation at EMMA. The work is part of a long-term project in which the artist explores artificially created environments. In her work, Kashima explores a zone where the biological reactions blend with cognitive awareness. She believes this elusive liminal space is an essential aspect of the human species. Kashima has worked with drawing and painting in Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa since 1995.

Kimsooja (b. 1957) uses reflective surfaces to create a space that challenges the traditional notion of painting via “non-making” and “non-doing”. The viewer, the space and the artwork merge into a single entity that has perception at its core. One of Kimsooja’s best-known works is the To Breathe series, in which she investigates light, color, breath and movement. Her work at EMMA continues the series, expanding the ideas about the nature of painting by painting with light, projected onto the mirrored platform from above to form a tableau of color.

Tarik Kiswanson (b. 1986) is a Swedish, Palestinian, French and Jordanian visual artist whose themes of rootlessness, transformation and memory stem from his family’s experiences of migration and identity construction. The cocoon-like shape of the sculpture Nest evokes notions of regeneration and renewal. It is part of a broader body of work, in which the first sculpture was made to the measurements of the artist’s own body. In the series Recall Kiswanson incorporated everyday objects that followed three generations of his family through exile and migration. In Concealed, Anamnesis, In My Blood, The Accident and Respite, the objects are fortified in transparent and blurry resin casts. Encased, they can be seen as time capsules, windows to a past that might otherwise remain out of reach. Personal, yet also universal, the objects link the intimate with the collective, inviting reflections on time, loss and memory. 

Germaine Kruip´s (b. 1970) Islands triptych is a suite of works in which light responds in real time to wind speeds measured on three uninhabited islands; Lampione — a small rocky island located on the Mediterrianean Sea, Kreos — Greek island on the Cyclades and Tetepare — the largest uninhabited island in the South Pacific. 

The Illuminated Wind, Tetepare

Tetepare Island is the largest uninhabited island in the South Pacific. It supports pristine lowland rainforest and a rich inshore marine area. Tetepare Island is identified as an area with high biodiversity and conservation values.

The local residents were apparently once a distinct ethnic group; a Tetepare language and unique traditions are attested, but information is fragmentary. The island was abandoned in the mid-19th century. At the western tip, a 3.75-square-kilometre coconut plantation was established in 1907–1918, but this declined since World War II and all maintenance ceased after 1990. Secondary forest is now reclaiming this area. The island continues to be a place of spiritual and traditional significance in the region.

Possible location for the wind data: the forest

The Illuminated Wind, Lampione

Lampione is a small rocky island located in the Mediterranean Sea, which belongs administratively to the Province of Agrigento, region of Sicily, Italy. The island is uninhab ited, the only building being a lighthouse. According to the legend, the island was a rock that had fallen from the hands of the cyclops Polyphemus.

Possible location for the wind data: the lighthouse

The Illuminated Wind, Keros

Keros is an uninhabited and unpopulated Greek island in the Cyclades. Administratively it is part of the community of Koufonisia. It has an area of 15 km2 and its highest point is Mount Papa, at 432 m. It was an important site to the Cycladic civilization that flourished around 2500 BC. It is now forbidden to land in Keros.

In ancient times, a pre-Cycladic civilization had once flourished there between 2800 B.C and 2300 B.C. Marble statues, utensils made of stone and ceramics, obsidian blades and many graves were found on Keros. According to a myth, the mother of Artemis and Apollo, Leto, gave birth to Artemis on the island which is why it is widely believed in the archaeological community that religious celebrations to this deity took place on Keros. Keros looks like a naked lying woman at night under the light of the moon, when you gaze upon the island from Pano Koufonisi. This human shape that is brought out by the ridge of the island is supposed to have inspired the creators of the famous female figurines of the Early Cycladic Civilization.

Possible location for the wind data: the eyes of the female figure

In Germaine Kruip´s work 360 Polyphony, Brass the beams merge with the architecture of the WeeGee house, where they come to life as playable instruments, activated by EMMA´s staff.  The artist´s works are born of observation and presence. They respond to prevailing conditions and change from one moment to the next. Kruip weaves distant places into the present, investigating how space can be ritualised.

You are welcome to sit on the bench to experience Germaine Kruip’s short performance I See a Landscape. The performance has been carried out in various contexts and in many different ways, including in private homes.

The text recited in the performance, is based on the closing lines of Jean-Luc Godard’s film Éloge de l’amour (2001).

Ken Matsubara (b. 1949) is intrigued by the connection between the present and the past, and how memories shape us as individuals and communities. His installations often feature everyday materials such as water, glass and paper, which he combines with projections and antique objects.

Moon Bowl  integrates singing bowls, used in East Asian Buddhist traditions for signalling, with water and video. As the water moves, images projected on the surface disintegrate and become whole once more. Matsubara wants to draw our attention to the beauty of the impermanence of all things.

Lydia Ourahmane’s (b.1992) work In the Absence of Our Mothers consists of two gold teeth—one of which is in the artist’s mouth and the other displayed in the exhibition—alongside a text, and an X-ray image. The piece is deeply rooted in her own family history, concretely in herself, and more broadly in how we perceive value and migration.  

In Ourahmane´s works, personal narratives intertwine with broader political and historical structures. She uses real objects and documentation in her practice to reveal how contemporary issues such as geopolitics, migration, and the histories of colonialism are inscribed on the body.  

Algeria came under French rule in 1830. From 1932 to 1945 Tayeb Ourahmane served compulsory military service in the French-Algerian army. Based in Oujda, which is now part of Morocco, Ourahmane was one of the highest-ranking snipers in the military and worked, against his will, to train Algerian soldiers.

In 1945, he was ordered to join the French military to fight against Germany in World War II. Married with three children and serving his 13th year of service, Ourahmane resisted further military service by extracting all of his teeth. This act of self-mutilation led to his eventual annulment from the military, with officials recognising he was unfit for service.

The Algerian War began in 1954 leading to Algeria’s independence from France in 1962. During this time Ourahmane was part of the Oujda Group, a group of military officers and politicians fighting French colonial control over Algeria.

Ourahmane became actively involved in the fight against French occupation. He facilitated the illegal import of arms into Algeria
and made his home a base for ammunition storage, as well as a place where wounded soldiers could seek recovery. Before Ourahmane passed away in 1979 he refused to be formally honored for his involvement in the fight for independence.

* * *

In 2015, while researching illegal immigration from Algeria to Spain, Lydia Ourahmane, Tayeb Ourahmane’s granddaughter, met a 23-year-old man in the Medina Djedida market in Oran, Algeria. He was selling an 18k gold chain, that he claimed was his mother’s. Lydia bought the chain from him for 300 €, the approximate fee charged by traffickers at the time for a place in a boat migrating to Europe.

In January 2018 the gold chain was melted down and cast into two gold teeth, replicating Lydia’s missing upper right maxillary molar. Surgery was then performed on Lydia’s mouth to prepare the bone for tooth insertion. One gold tooth was then permanently screwed into her mouth.

Helen Pashgian (b. 1934) is known for her pioneering explorations of light and perception in art. She is one of the key figures of the Light and Space movement, which emerged in California in the 1960s. Artists associated with it created artworks in which light itself became a material. Pashgian uses resin, acrylic and other translucent materials that interact with light to bring her works to life. The sculpture in the centre of this installation is realized through multiple resin pours, undertaken in a process that is both technically exacting and temporally demanding. The work forms an immersive whole in which light, space and the viewer’s perception are in constant interaction.

Jani-Matti Salo (b.1984) uses light, sound and video, often in dialogue with the site, to explore how perception is affected by technology, everyday phenomena and human interaction. In At Times, a work conceived for EMMA, the light gradually intensifies and then fades suddenly, faster than the eye can adjust. The resulting effect shifts the viewer’s focus of attention from the external world towards an interior experience. The form of the work echoes the row of windows in the WeeGee house, entering into dialogue with the landscape, the changing seasons and weather conditions outside. The installation also includes a soundscape composed by the artist, which evolves in step with the wave-like movement of the light. 

Danh Võ’s (b. 1975)  We the People (detail) belongs to a sculpture series of the same name (2011–2016). For the series, the artist divided the form of the Statue of Liberty in New York into approximately 300 parts and turned each part into an individual sculpture. These have been exhibited around the world, both independently  and as installations. The artist’s idea, however, is not to present all the elements of the work in one place, but rather the opposite – to spread them out as widely as possible. The work investigates the meaning of the concept of the monument, the dismantling of symbols of power, and the colonial structures upon which concepts like freedom are so often built.

Nurture is a performance that creates a space for gentleness and vulnerability. It uses nurture and breastfeeding to explore the body, gender and coexistence.

The performance is a one-on-one encounter where the performer breastfeeds the viewer-participant. Each encounter requires a reserved ticket. The performances are open, and they can also be observed, without participation.

When no performance is taking place, the space remains open to the public. You are welcome to step inside and rest if you wish.

More information on performance dates and tickets.

WAUHAUS is a Helsinki-based multidisciplinary arts collective founded in 2016. The collective’s works are situated between different genres of art and take place in various contexts, such as theatres, public spaces and museums.

Reality Research Center (TTK) is a collective of performance art professionals comprising 81 artists. TTK is particularly known for developing new forms of performance, such as site-specific and one-on-one works. Its performances often take place outside traditional stages – on city streets, in forests, and in unexpected everyday spaces – placing the viewer’s experience at the very heart of its work.

Duration: 25 min
Language: Finnish, English

Concept,  performance and performer: Samuli Laine (WAUHAUS)
Sound: Jussi Matikainen (WAUHAUS)
Mentoring: Jarkko Partanen (WAUHAUS) and Jussi Matikainen
Ryijy rug design: Samuli Laine
Ryijy rug made by Iris Blauberg,  Laura Jantunen, Hanne Jurmu, Aliisa Talja & Samuli Laine

Production: WAUHAUS, Reality Research Center and Samuli Laine

Supported by Finnish Cultural Foundation, Uusimaa Fund, The Arts Promotion Centre Finland

The church bell played in the performance has been lent by Supavit Nummelin from the Finnish Church Bell Service Ltd.

Première: 28.10.2020 at ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival, Kuopio, Finland

Video:

Directing, filming and editing: Paula Virta

Production: EMMA – Espoon modernin taiteen museo & Julia Hovi – WAUHAUS

Artist: Samuli Laine

Performer: Yilin Ma

The work by WAUHAUS will be on display 14.3. – 9.8.2026.

Circle on the Floor is a work created by Ian Wilson (1940–2020) in 1968. It has an infinite edition, meaning it can be presented endlessly. It consists of a circle drawn by hand on the floor with white chalk. The work is always executed according to the artist’s instructions, and it remains the same everywhere. Wilson was a central figure in conceptual art, an art movement that emerged in the 1960s, in which the idea of the work was considered more important than its visual or material realization. In conceptual art, the work originates from an idea, and its physical manifestation is seen as merely a means to make that idea visible.

Merging seamlessly with the architecture of the WeeGee house, Maaria Wirkkala’s (b. 1954) Sharing unfolds in a space between opposites: the dim and the bright; concealment and revelation; the known and the unknown. Wirkkala often conceives her works so that the surroundings become an integral element of the artworks.

When first created, this piece was part of an exhibition investigating the meaning of sharing, presented in an old monastery in Graz, Austria, which had been repurposed as a museum. Wirkkala poses a series of questions: what does a closed door reveal about a room where the light is so intense it must be concealed? What has happened there? What has happened there before?

Museum Director: Krist Gruijthuijsen

Curators: Laura Eweis, Ingrid Orman, Pernilla Wiik

Exhibition series concept: Pilvi Kalhama

Project management: Ingrid Orman, Pernilla Wiik

Graphic design: Milla Rissanen

Technical design and construction and exhibition structures: Jenni Enbom, Kalle Jarva, Miika Kyyrö, Lasse Lindfors, Olli Lukkari, Lasse Naukkarinen, Tarmo Venäläinen

Lighting: Lasse Lindfors, Anna Pöllänen, Jani-Matti Salo

Conservation: Simo Karvinen, Marianne Miettinen, Saara Peisa

Registration: Mereca Victorzon

Exhibition texts: Laura Eweis, Tero Hytönen, Ingrid Orman, Pernilla Wiik

Mobile guide: Tero Hytönen, Ilari Strandberg

Audience engagement and events program: Tero Hytönen, Reetta Kalajo

Guided tour design: Riikka Alanko, Ilari Strandberg

Customer service design: Maija Eränen, Ilari Strandberg

Marketing and Communications: Iris Suomi, Helmi Tolonen

Photography and documentation: Paula Virta

Video production: Tero Hytönen, Iris Suomi, Paula Virta

Service sales, visitor surveys: Essi Huhtanen

EMMA Shop: Mira Alanko, Salla Engström

EMMA customer service and guides

Translations: Mats Forsskåhl (svenska), Tomi Snellman (english)

Thank you for your support: 

Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation 

LocalTapiola 

Saastamoinen Foundation