Helsinki Biennial 2025
Shelter: Below and Beyond, Becoming and Belonging
June 08 – to September 21, 2025
Helsinki Biennial 2025 brings together 37 artists and collectives on Vallisaari Island, in Esplanade Park, and at HAM Helsinki Art Museum. The theme of this third edition of the major contemporary art event is Shelter: Below and Beyond, Becoming and Belonging. Helsinki Biennial takes place from 8 June to 21 September 2025.
The third Helsinki Biennial seeks to shake us out of anthropocentrism in order to better understand the delicate and severely imbalanced relationship between humankind and nature. The curatorial concept questions human dominance by foregrounding non-human actors such as plants, animals, fungi, elements and minerals. The curators believe this shift in perspective can foster new awareness and compassion for other living beings. By displacing the anthropocentric gaze, we aim to discover a plurality of ways to sense and mediate experiences that embrace the ecosystem.
The third edition of the biennial is titled Shelter. The title and theme were strongly inspired by one of the main venues of the biennial, the Vallisaari island, which has been free of human habitation for decades. For us, the island represents a form of shelter, a rich ecosystem surrounded by the sea that has been left to its own devices without active human intervention for a long time. The protected island, located close to the heart of the city, is one of the region’s most diverse in terms of flora and is also home to numerous bat, butterfly, and other insect species. Today, the island, with its long history of military use, offers the opportunity to imagine what unfolds when humans leave the stage and non-human actors remain.
The third edition of Helsinki Biennial envisions art as a source of shelter and compassion, both conceptually and physically. With animals, plants, insects, minerals as their protagonists, the artworks employ various interspecies perspectives in exploring the significance of nonhuman actors to the wellbeing of our shared planet. Also highlighted are Indigenous narratives, which convey knowledge that can foster a more sustainable and holistic relationship with the environment and all its inhabitants.
Helsinki Biennial 2025 seeks to forge new spaces of protection and inspire positive environmental action. By laying down guidelines on environmental actions and engendering awareness of nature’s delicate balance, the biennial’s systemic sustainability plan marks a conscious attempt to bridge the gap between theory and practice, not only does the biennial propose alternative realities, but also proactively strives to make them materialize.
A successful collaboration on a public art project may also lead to a work being featured at Helsinki Biennial. Long daylight pavilion, a public artwork by Olafur Eliasson unveiled on 5 June in Kruunuvuorenranta, has been in preparation for Helsinki for a long time, and the collaboration also paved the way for his art to be experienced on Vallisaari as part of Helsinki Biennial 2025.
more. www.helsinkibiennal.com
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