chance encounter

chance encounter

Jaakko Pallasvuo
Nestori Syrjälä
Bogna Luiza Wiśniewska

15 - 21 June 2025
Opening Sunday 15 June 2pm - midnight

Basel Social Club
Basel, Switzerland (Stay tuned for the exact location to be revealed 2 June!)

Finnland-Institut, Berlin and Finnish Cultural Institute in New York (FCINY) are excited to present chance encounter, a project bringing together three new commissions by Finland-based artists Jaakko Pallasvuo, Nestori Syrjälä and Bogna Luiza Wiśniewska as part of Basel Social Club 2025. The project, curated by Mirjami Schuppert (Finnland-Institut) and Elina Suoyrjö (FCINY) is a spin-off from Limits to Growth, a project realised with the same artists at NADA Miami in 2024, and curated by FCINY’s Elina Suoyrjö.

Responding to the concept of ‘value systems’, the overarching theme of this year’s Basel Social Club, the newly produced works lurk in the shadows, negotiating their relationship to both the visitors of the event and the past of the curious building hosting them.

Cashing in on one of the most significant art market gatherings in Europe, Basel Social Club offers a counterweight to the commercial art fair through free entry, a rich presentation of art and artists, and a spirit of conviviality. chance encounter acts as part of it: as a site for coming together over listening, discussing, sharing a cup of tea.

Jaakko Pallasvuo (b. 1333) is an artist and writer living in Helsinki. Pallasvuo’s works are not about anything. Pieces from this random, restless body of work have been exhibited at the 14th Baltic Triennial, BOZAR, Frankfurter Kunstverein and Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, among other places. Pallasvuo publishes microessays on the popular Instagram account @avocado_ibuprofen, and has written for publications such as The Whitney Review and transmediale journal.

Nestori Syrjälä works with sculpture, installation and public interventions. For the past ten years he has been obsessed with the crisis in human relations with the environment: the ground under our feet, the air we breathe and the oceans that surround us are all turning strange. Syrjälä´s work explores this strangeness through his sculptural practice as well as through social situations created in public space. Syrjälä has studied sculpture in the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and the Royal Institute of Art in Sweden. His work has been shown in Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Matadero Madrid and Gwangju Biennale.

Bogna Luiza Wiśniewska (b.1988, Poland) is a soft-hearted person who lives and works in Helsinki, where she maintains an arts practice that fosters cosy spaces and good company, bringing people together through painting, ceramics, textiles, exhibition-making, installation, cooking, gardening and hosting. Her practice is rooted in care, kindness, fragility, queerness and the exploration of these elements through various mediums. She is actively involved in the Helsinki art scene and part of artist-run gallery SIC.

Basel Social Club is a unique and dynamic platform taking place during Art Basel week. Held in a different venue each year, the event brings together art, social life, and entertainment, positioning itself as a compelling alternative to traditional art fairs. By uniting galleries of various scales and artists from diverse backgrounds, the event aspires to create an inclusive and multifaceted art environment. Basel Social Club is free and open to all.

The Finnland-Institut is a forum for Finnish culture, academia and business in German-speaking Europe. The Institute emphasises on networking and counselling of actors from different disciplines and offers, in co-operation with its partners, a diverse programme providing insights into Finland's culture and society.

chance encounter is organized collaboratively by Finnland-Institut and the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York as part of the pARTir initiative funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.