Miina Kaartinen & Sanna Ritvanen from Mustarinda on collective curating and ecological transitions

Miina Kaartinen and Sanna Ritvanen from Mustarinda Association were FCINY's curators-in-residence this spring 2025. They spent January–March at Pioneer Works, an arts organization located in Red Hook, Brooklyn. We caught up with them to discuss their curatorial practice and experiences in New York City.

Please share a bit about Mustarinda and yourselves!

Mustarinda is a non-profit organization and artist and researcher collective. Our activities combine contemporary art, boundary-crossing research, practical experimentation, communication, pedagogy, and community work. All the activities have a common goal: the ecological transition of societies.

Miina is a researcher and social worker, and she currently works as the Executive Director of Mustarinda. Sanna is a creative producer, curator, and the Vice Chair of the Mustarinda board.

Mustarinda’s activities are rooted in a village called Hyrynsalmi in the northeastern part of Finland, Kainuu, where we both have roots. The Mustarinda house is on Paljakka Hill, one of Finland's snowiest places. The geographical and physical location of Mustarinda is the starting point of our program; we work a lot with the forest, the mires, and the natural environment.

How would you describe your collective curatorial practice?

We are not a curator duo in the conventional sense: we represent an organization and a large group of people who contribute to Mustarinda's projects throughout the year. The collective curatorial practice is what happens in, with, and through this community. One way to look at it is to say that Mustarinda is a curator. Same way Mustarinda is an ongoing collective artistic process or a community-based research project. The collective curatorial practice is part of our residency program, coordinated and curated by the Mustarinda house group which consists of Jaakko Junnila, Aneta Willertová, Tiina Arjukka Hirvonen, Luke Von Lüpke, Matias Loikala, Leena Reittu, Laura Suurhasko, Aliisa Talja, Hanna Kaisa Vainio, Ilpo Heikkinen, Milka Luhtaniemi, Joonas Haataja and Juti Saari. It has been operating like this for almost ten years already.

Tell us a little about your activities in the FCINY curatorial residency!

We both are working in leadership roles in the association and our goal here in NYC has been to develop Mustarinda’s organizational structures and plan for the coming years. We are drafting a few different future scenarios to take with us back home where the work continues with others in the group. The cultural field – and the world in general – is going through turbulent times at the moment so it’s good to be prepared. At the same time, we are planning Mustarinda’s summer 2026. We are part of the 'European Capital of Culture' program and will open the Mustarinda house for audiences with our member artists and educators as well as other collaborators.

In New York, we are meeting colleagues and peer organizations that work at the intersections of arts, science, activism, and environmental issues. We’ve also been taking part in Pioneer Work’s weekly staff meetings to learn how they're operating and interviewing people working there. In our free time, we have been obsessing over the confusing waste management and recycling system of NYC, and have been going to NHL matches (supporting Finland ofc), small cinemas, and bird walks, for example.

Mustarinda’s practice incorporates the concepts of “care" and “curiosity."Can you share how these values shape your curatorial decisions and how they might evolve through this residency experience?

This is related to a conversation Miina once had with Mustarinda member, researcher, and curator Neal Cahoon: the words curator, care, and curiosity all originate from the same word. In our opinion these concepts are essential in curating and in Mustarinda we really try to make them a practice instead of only using them as vague jargon or buzzwords.

For example, care and curiosity are present in our residency from the open call to the last day of the residency month. Our open-call jury carefully selects a residency group that fosters a supportive community, ensuring that each resident’s needs are considered and their practices can support one another. When the residents arrive in Mustarinda, there is a housekeeper who hosts the group for the whole month, which is a practice of care in itself. We also encourage residents to care for both the house and the community they build during their time in Mustarinda while staying curious about each other’s practices. We had an interesting discussion regarding this with our fellow Pioneer Works resident Armando Rosales. He is researching residencies and mentioned that for him, the most important part of a residency is that the host trusts the artist – it’s about reciprocity. This is exactly what we want to cherish at Mustarinda. 

As you immerse yourselves in the cultural landscape of New York, what aspects of it do you find particularly inspiring or thought-provoking in relation to your work?

The sheer dominance of concrete, the struggling trees confined to small urban spaces, the ever-present byproducts of capitalism, and odorous garbage bags make us reflect on the stark differences between built environments and the natural landscapes we engage with in our work.

At the same time, we’re inspired by Red Hook’s village-like atmosphere and the connections we’ve made with like-minded peers from across the world. The city’s randomness and energy keep us on our toes – much like in Kainuu, where every village has its characters. And, of course, the sheer breadth of culture and art here is remarkable. There’s a strong sense that culture holds intrinsic value, which is something we deeply appreciate.

What role do you think curators and artist-run spaces should play in the ecological transition?

Art can widen our understanding of what is possible. Even if this is an almost cliche thing to say, it is true. Art has the potential to change people, and when the change that needs to happen is a cultural change, it also means changes in our values, in our minds, and hearts. Art at its best can start, support, mirror, construct, and reconstruct social, psychological, and cultural processes. When it comes to the role of curators, their expertise is to work as mediators between different worlds and experiences, which is important in the processes of cultural change.

Artist-run spaces and artists as cultural forerunners have also an important task to make ecological and sustainable life cool – which it is! At Mustarinda we aim to show in practice that sustainable life does not mean suffering and it’s actually more pleasurable, fulfilling, and aesthetically pleasing than a wasteful and consuming life. Usually, people also have lots of fun at Mustarinda. Unfortunately artist-run spaces also often work with scarce resources, so Mustarinda is used to making big things from small resources. It’s an asset and a skill that everyone should have.

Are there specific curatorial strategies or models that you find particularly effective in addressing environmental and social concerns?

Mustarinda is a nest for different kinds of knowledge, experiences, and professions, and we work at the intersection of art, science, ecology, and research. The questions we are dealing with demand diversity and wide skill sets. While we are a professional organization, we also want to cherish a certain kind of amateurism, as in doing something because you love doing it and not because it's your job. One can always learn new things and you do not have to fit in the traditional and normative professional boxes. 

Global environmental and social concerns we are all currently facing can be paralyzing or cause nihilism in each one of us. However, tackling the problems in our environments and together with other people gives a feeling of empowerment. It also makes it easier for us to see the changes when the results are tangible and directly affect our everyday surroundings.

What did you hope to learn from this exchange with Pioneer Works, and did you achieve it?

This residency came in a good spot with Sanna being in-between bigger projects and having the possibility to dedicate more time for Mustarinda, and Miina having the need to reflect a bit on what she’s done in her ED position during the past three years. Mustarinda works multi-locally, all of us are located in different places around Finland and the globe, and a lot of the work is done on a voluntary basis aside from one's daily jobs and other work. It is very special for us to get to spend three months in the same physical space and be able to immerse ourselves in our work, ideas, and thoughts.

Although Mustarinda House is an international and lively place, at times, it’s good to slide down from Paljakka Hill and see what happens outside of Kainuu and Finland. Spending time at Pioneer Works has given us time and space to reflect on our work. It’s been rewarding yet again to notice how advanced Mustarinda is in combining theory and practice when it comes to ecological thinking and doing. We have learned about what the ecological themes mean in the US. While we’ve become experts at Mustarinda on what it means to live with climate change in a boreal forest, here the questions circulate around water, for example. During this time here in NYC, we met and acquainted many people and organizations, with whom we know for sure to be collaborating in the future. So yes, one can say we achieved the goals set for this residency and much more!

Finally, what is waiting for you after your return from New York?

We are having quite an active spring at Mustarinda this year. Our residencies continue until the end of April, and in the coming months, we're hosting events like the 80th birthday celebration of the northern cultural magazine Kaltio. We also have a major renovation of the Mustarinda house planned for next summer which is a key priority.

We have planted many seeds during the FCINY residency, so we are eagerly waiting to see what will sprout from these – and what sprouts in Mustarinda's garden too!

Check out Miina and Sanna's FCINY Instagram takeover here here to get a glimpse into their time in New York, and explore Mustarinda on Instagram here.

Interview questions by: Emma Termonen and Rowena Hurme
Published: March 26, 2025