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Looking Back: 2020โ€“2025 - Farewell Interview with Elina Suoyrjรถ

Photo by Emma Termonen

๐™‹๐™ง๐™ค๐™œ๐™ง๐™–๐™ข๐™ข๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™ง๐™ค๐™ช๐™œ๐™ ๐™˜๐™–๐™ง๐™š, ๐™˜๐™ช๐™ง๐™ž๐™ค๐™จ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™ฎ ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™ฉ๐™ง๐™–๐™ฃ๐™จ๐™›๐™ค๐™ง๐™ข๐™–๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ค๐™ฃ

After five years with the ๐—™๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ต ๐—–๐˜‚๐—น๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—œ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐˜๐˜‚๐˜๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ก๐—ฒ๐˜„ ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ธ, our ๐——๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—ฃ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐˜€, ๐—˜๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฎ ๐—ฆ๐˜‚๐—ผ๐˜†๐—ฟ๐—ทรถ, is moving on to her next chapter. Since joining the Institute in the fall of 2020, at a moment of global upheaval, Elina has steered our programming with ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ, ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†, ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฎ ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฏ๐˜๐—น๐˜† ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป.

With a background spanning ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด, ๐˜„๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด, and ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ต, Elina has brought a distinctive voice to the Instituteโ€™s work, fostering dialogue between Finnish and North American practitioners, and expanding the reach of our ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐˜†, ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—น, ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฝ๐˜‚๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐˜€. Her approach has consistently foregrounded collaboration, critical reflection, and the importance of sustainable and long-term cultural exchange

Upon her departure, we asked questions from Elina to reflect on her time at ๐—™๐—–๐—œ๐—ก๐—ฌ, the projects and partnerships that have defined her tenure, the challenges and joys of working across continents, and the ideas she will carry forward into her next chapter.


๐˜๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฃ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ž๐ ๐…๐‚๐ˆ๐๐˜ ๐ข๐ง ๐Ž๐œ๐ญ๐จ๐›๐ž๐ซ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ, ๐ซ๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฆ๐ข๐๐๐ฅ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐š ๐ ๐ฅ๐จ๐›๐š๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐š๐ง๐๐ž๐ฆ๐ข๐œ. ๐‡๐จ๐ฐ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฌ๐ž ๐ฎ๐ง๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐š๐ฅ ๐œ๐ข๐ซ๐œ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ง๐œ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ก๐š๐ฉ๐ž ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ซ๐จ๐ฅ๐ž ?

It was a strange experience starting a new job abroad from my living room in Finland, just by turning the work laptop on. The fact that the whole team worked remotely, with no staff members at the office, shaped everything we were able to do. I thought a lot about what kind of programming could even be relevant at that point: what would benefit artists, what would interest the audiences, and in the end, what kind of programming the Institute was actually able to do from this vast distance to the city. I worked closely with artist ๐—ง๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ธ๐—ฒ ๐—›๐—ฎ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ท๐—ฎ, who was one of FCINYโ€™s board members at the time and lived in New York. She was my eyes and ears in the city and Iโ€™m ever grateful for all the discussions we had at that time. One thing none of us realized from the distance was the trauma the pandemic caused to the city. This only started unfolding once the borders opened and we were able to relocate. I actually think the pandemic times and its aftermath is still unfolding within the city and its residents. Itโ€™s not just something anyone wants to talk about at the moment. The experience New Yorkers had of the pandemic with full-on lockdowns, neverending sound of sirens, the sight of field hospitals in city center, and losing loved ones, was completely different to the Finnish experience of people mainly complaining about bars being closed. It was a challenge to think about what programming in New York could be at that time. The overarching solution was to approach the program as a whole through tenderness and care.


๐–๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ž๐ซ๐ž ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฆ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐›๐ข๐ ๐ ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฃ๐ž๐œ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐š๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ข๐ง๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ž ?

The idea for the still ongoing ๐—ช๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด podcast started brewing quite soon after I joined the Institute. The idea was to emphasize the silver lining of a devastating situation: the potential of rethinking our ways and habits of working, and eventually changing them amidst the halt in production and hustle caused by the pandemic. Work with Withstanding has continued after the pandemic, partly as a reminder of this potential, which we seem to have totally forgotten about! Three seasons of Withstanding have also served as a platform for sound-based art. I was really excited about this possibility, as exhibiting art was physically impossible at that time.

Once physical gatherings became possible, I started working on a program titled ๐—˜๐˜…๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ง๐—ผ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€, which consisted of small-scale public gatherings and culminated in presenting a group exhibition titled ๐—˜๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ต๐˜† ๐— ๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—น๐—ฒ, and a publication gathering contributions from curators, writers and artists. The first gatherings were tiny, as we were allowed to gather with a maximum of 15 people! The program was all about gently learning to be together in the aftermath of the pandemic, and it included contemplation on topics such as the significance of communities, human/more-than-human relations, and work-life balance. Two first gatherings were realized in Helsinki with ๐—™๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐—”๐—ฟ๐˜ ๐—™๐—ถ๐—ป๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ and ๐—ฃ๐—จ๐—•๐—Ÿ๐—œ๐—–๐—ฆ, two following events in New York with ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐˜† ๐—จ๐—ป๐—น๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฑ and ๐—ฆ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ฎ ๐—›๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ฒ, and the final gathering took place online on the Withstanding podcast platform. The publication was a possibility to reflect upon all that was done and what on the other hand needed more attention.

Photos by Kira Bjorklund and Helmi DeMaxi (Korhonen)

During my time at the FCINY I have also had the chance (and the pleasure!) to work across the whole ๐—™๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ต ๐—”๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—–๐˜‚๐—น๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—œ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐˜๐˜‚๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€โ€™ network. In 2022, I worked closely with ๐—ž๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฎ ๐—ž๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ต๐˜๐—ถ, who was at the time the Director of Programs at the ๐—™๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ต ๐—œ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐˜๐˜‚๐˜๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—จ๐—ž & ๐—œ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ, in planning and realizing an exhibition and a seminar titled ๐—˜๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—”๐—น๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€, which took place at ๐—›๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—ต๐—ผ๐—น๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—–๐˜‚๐—น๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—–๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ. The project brought together several of the Finnish Institutes operating all over the world. Karoliina and I continued collaborating in 2023 by planning and organizing a notch more ambitious project, ๐—ง๐—ผ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—”๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป, which brought together nine Institutes to commission new works from artists and artist collectives, and organising an ambitious one-day program at ๐—ข๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ถ ๐—Ÿ๐—ถ๐—ฏ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜† in Helsinki, presenting a keynote talk, discussions, presentations, commissioned pieces, and participatory artworks. It was a journey! Program directors and other staff members from all of the institutes played an essential part in making that event happen, and the FCINY also hired a fantastic producer, ๐— ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ ๐—š๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ต๐˜‚๐—ผ, to work on this vast program.

๐€๐ซ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ž ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ž๐œ๐ข๐Ÿ๐ข๐œ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฃ๐ž๐œ๐ญ๐ฌ, ๐œ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐š๐›๐จ๐ซ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ, ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ญ๐ž๐ง๐ฎ๐ซ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐Ÿ๐ž๐ž๐ฅ ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ž๐œ๐ข๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐จ๐Ÿ ?

Image by Matt Borkowski BFA.com

Iโ€™m of course proud of all of the projects Iโ€™ve had the chance to work on at the institute, but if I have to pick one, Iโ€™d like to highlight ๐—Ÿ๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—š๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜„๐˜๐—ต. This was a project that took place at the ๐—ก๐—ฒ๐˜„ ๐—”๐—ฟ๐˜ ๐——๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐—”๐—น๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ (๐—ก๐—”๐——๐—”) fair in ๐— ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ถ in December 2024. ๐—Ÿ๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—š๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜„๐˜๐—ต was very much an experimental curatorial project, in which a nomadic exhibition presenting the work of three artists was carried out by two performers on each day of the fair. The contributing artists were ๐—๐—ฎ๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ธ๐—ผ ๐—ฃ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜ƒ๐˜‚๐—ผ, ๐—ก๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ถ ๐—ฆ๐˜†๐—ฟ๐—ทรค๐—นรค, and ๐—•๐—ผ๐—ด๐—ป๐—ฎ ๐—Ÿ๐˜‚๐—ถ๐˜‡๐—ฎ ๐—ช๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜„๐˜€๐—ธ๐—ฎ, who all created new works or new versions of earlier works for this occasion. The wonderful performers were US-based artists ๐—›๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—Ÿ๐˜†๐—ผ๐—ป and ๐—บ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—ฒ๐—น ๐˜€๐—ผ๐˜๐—ผ. During the week, the audience members were able to spot this odd character wandering slowly around the fair area, focused on reading the book Limits to Growth from 1972. This report pretty much predicted the outcomes of disaster capitalism and the imminent climate catastrophe caused by it.

I loved working on this project, as I got to put all my curatorial ideas in, and work with fantastic artists on commissioning new work, and putting together something experimental. The starting point was Syrjรคlรคโ€™s existing performative work based on the Limits to Growth report, that we then took together to a new direction. There was a lot of curious unpredictability in terms of the performative part and possible audience reactions, and content-wise it was a delicious mix of social and ecological critique and playfulness. I was also able to commission a visual identity for this project from ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฎ ๐—ฉ๐—ฒ๐˜‡๐—ถ๐—ธ๐—ผ, who had just participated in the FCINYโ€™s residency program as a ๐——๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ-๐—ถ๐—ป-๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ. In the end, Limits to Growth was a short and sweet project that brought together six practitioners in the peculiar surroundings of a busy art fair.

During my tenure the Institute has also launched a curatorial residency program. This was carried out for two years in collaboration with ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐˜† ๐—จ๐—ป๐—น๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฑ, and from 2024 on with ๐—ฃ๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ช๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ธ๐˜€. It has been a pleasure to get to work with such established and essential NYC-organisations in bringing Finnish curators to New York to do research, meet artists, and network. The pool of curators is growing in Finland by the year, but the structures of the art world are still adapting to this change in the ecosystem.

Iโ€™d also like to highlight one ๐—ช๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด episode, namely ๐—˜๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐Ÿณ: ๐—ข๐—ป ๐—Ÿ๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด & ๐—›๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐—”๐—ป๐˜๐˜†๐—ฒ ๐—š๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ฒ ๐—ฅ๐—ถ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐˜๐˜๐—ถ and ๐—Ÿ๐—ฎ๐— ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—›๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—น๐˜๐—ผ๐—ป. Again - I think all ๐—ช๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด episodes have been fantastic as there have been such fantastic speakers and moderators who have said yes to the invitations, but what is special about this episode is that it focuses on the sound art element that I was particularly excited about when starting to work on the podcast. As mentioned, Withstanding was very much a platform for both discussions and exhibiting sound-based art. It was wonderful to get to bring these incredible artists together, Antye from ๐—›๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—น๐˜‚๐—ผ๐˜๐—ผ in ๐—ก๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ป ๐—™๐—ถ๐—ป๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ and ๐—Ÿ๐—ฎ๐— ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜ from ๐—”๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฒ ๐—”๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ธ๐—ฎ, to talk about what soundings mean to them, what kind of a medium or tool sound is, and what sound and hearing can do to us.

In 2025 there has been a specific focus in the program to highlight and honor Indigenous practices in contemporary art, architecture and design. This is the focus in ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ข๐™ค๐™จ๐™ฉ ๐™ง๐™š๐™˜๐™š๐™ฃ๐™ฉ ๐™จ๐™š๐™–๐™จ๐™ค๐™ฃ ๐™ค๐™› ๐™’๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ, and we also had the opportunity to start the year with a very loud bang by presenting an evening of ๐—œ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜€ ๐——๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ด ๐—˜๐˜…๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ with the most fabulous drag artists, ๐—”๐˜‚๐—ป๐˜๐˜† ๐—ง๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ, ๐—™๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ง๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฎ, ๐—ฅ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐˜† ๐—ฅ๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฅ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ป๐—ถ ๐—ง๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜€, and the bestest partners ever, ๐—ฅ๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฑ๐˜‚ ๐—ฅ๐—ถฤ‘ฤ‘๐˜‚ ๐—™๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฎ๐—น, ๐—Ÿ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฒ-๐—Ÿ๐—ผ๐—ต๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐— ๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ฒ๐˜‚๐—บ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—”๐—ฟ๐˜, and ๐—™๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ต-๐—ก๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—–๐˜‚๐—น๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—œ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐˜๐˜‚๐˜๐—ฒ. Itโ€™s been extremely heart-warming to get excited feedback from artists, speakers and moderators, as the occasions to get to exchange thoughts and ideas between Indigenous communities across continents is quite rare. This program continues later on, so please stay tuned!

Photos by Maxwell Vice

Finally, I want to highlight ๐—ฆ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—š๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ๐˜€, a performative group exhibition I co-curated together with ๐— ๐—ฒ๐—ด๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฎ ๐—ž๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ธ from the ๐—™๐—น๐˜‚๐˜… ๐—™๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜† in the summer of 2025 at ๐—›๐˜‚๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟโ€™๐˜€ ๐—ฃ๐—ผ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ฆ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ต ๐—ฃ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ธ ๐—Ÿ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—œ๐˜€๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—–๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†. This was very much a project I wanted to realize from the start of my tenure. I was curious about the use and access to public space in ๐—ก๐—ฒ๐˜„ ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ธ ๐—–๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†, where most spaces are private and/or commercial. The idea was brewing for a long time and once I got in touch with ๐—™๐—น๐˜‚๐˜… ๐—™๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜†'๐˜€ team things started to develop quite organically. Meghana and I had the chance to commission new works from five fantastic artists, all of whom brought audience members together in the park through their own practices, to contemplate on our relationships with both each other and our surroundings. The performance day at the end of June was truly magical!

Photos by Yann Chashanovski

๐…๐‚๐ˆ๐๐˜ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ค๐ฌ ๐š๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐ž๐œ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐…๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ข๐ฌ๐ก ๐š๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐ก ๐€๐ฆ๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐œ๐š๐ง ๐œ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐š๐ฅ ๐ž๐ฑ๐œ๐ก๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž. ๐‡๐จ๐ฐ ๐๐จ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐Ÿ๐ž๐ž๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐๐ข๐š๐ฅ๐จ๐ ๐ฎ๐ž ๐ก๐š๐ฌ ๐ž๐ฏ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฏ๐ž๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ž?

Itโ€™s been extremely important for me to bring people together from both sides of the Atlantic as part of the programming. I see it as a benefit for the Institute that there is no allocated event space, but all programming is realized collaboratively with local partners. I think this is a prerequisite for actual cultural exchange and meaningful connections to happen. I have wanted to create programming that has had relevance to the scene and the participating professionals through content, instead of it being inherently a โ€œFinnishโ€ program. This thinking has guided my work from the start.


๐–๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ก๐š๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ค๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐…๐‚๐ˆ๐๐˜ ๐ญ๐ž๐š๐ฆ, ๐š๐ซ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฌ, ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฉ๐š๐ซ๐ญ๐ง๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐ž๐š๐ง๐ญ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ?

It has been an intense and active time, during which I have had the chance to do so many things I love. Iโ€™ve had the chance to bring artists and other art professionals together, and perhaps Iโ€™ve managed to plant some seeds for future partnerships and collaborations while doing it. Iโ€™ve been able to commission several new works by wonderful artists and texts from fantastic writers. I have also been able to realize two risograph print publications (which are my favorite!) with fabulous teams. Having worked previously mainly at art organisations, my time at the Institute has also offered another kind of aspect to working with cultural professionals and so many learnings about fostering cultural exchange.



๐–๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฆ๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐š๐›๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ˆ๐ง๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ž ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ซ๐จ๐ฅ๐ž ๐š๐ฌ ๐ƒ๐ข๐ซ๐ž๐œ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ ๐ซ๐š๐ฆ๐ฌ?

I think New York is all about the people and the chaotic energies people create within this small island. I will miss these both! As Iโ€™ve already mentioned, itโ€™s the wonderful collaborators and partners together with the ๐—™๐—–๐—œ๐—ก๐—ฌ team that bring the program alive. These alliances are both precious and generative, and sometimes hard to replicate in other cities. Iโ€™ll definitely try to bring some of these thoughts and learnings with me to my next endeavors.

The world is not a great place right now. Instead of fighting our own battles, I think that working together and joining forces is what we need at the moment. Itโ€™s been extremely moving to observe how the recent New York mayoral election results have empowered and mobilized people far beyond New York City. It seems as if people are starting to believe a change is possible, that each one of us can have agency, and above all, that there is hope. I believe art can have a huge part to play in strengthening thoughts and feelings like this, and I think this is exactly what we need at this very moment.



Photos by Emma Termonen

๐™’๐™š ๐™ฉ๐™๐™–๐™ฃ๐™  ๐™€๐™ก๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™– ๐™›๐™ค๐™ง ๐™๐™š๐™ง ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™จ๐™ฅ๐™ž๐™ง๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™˜๐™ค๐™ฃ๐™ฉ๐™ง๐™ž๐™—๐™ช๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ค๐™ฃ๐™จ ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™จ๐™ ๐™๐™š๐™ง ๐™˜๐™ค๐™ช๐™ง๐™–๐™œ๐™š ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™˜๐™ง๐™š๐™–๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ซ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™ฎ ๐™ž๐™ฃ ๐™๐™š๐™ง ๐™ฃ๐™š๐™ญ๐™ฉ ๐™˜๐™๐™–๐™ฅ๐™ฉ๐™š๐™ง!

Interview questions by Emma Termonen.
Text: Elina Suoyrjรถ & Emma Termonen

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