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Shared Space

Start date

03.03.2023

End date

13.08.2023

The Shared space exhibition includes site-specific works commissioned for public and semi-public spaces around Helsinki.

The works reflect on themes such as multispecies entanglements, other-than-human agencies, coexistence, presence and care, as well as the sense of place and the layering of time and materialities. Media include video, painting, sculpture, and participatory processes.  

After the exhibition, some of the artworks commissioned for semi-public venues such as day-care centres and schools will find permanent homes in the buildings for which they were intended. Some of the works will evolve into their final forms over the course of the coming year, and they will be presented as process fragments in the exhibition. A video based on A Great Mess, a site-specific performance staged on Vuosaarenhuippu Landfill Hill by the W A U H A U S arts collective, will be premiering in this exhibition. A Stream among Streams is a curatorial concept of public artworks that will spread across the Kalasatama district over the coming decade. 

During the spring and autumn, the exhibition will spread across the city in the form of guided tours of spaces that are not typically open to the public, such as day-care centres and schools.  

Featured artists: Alma HeikkiläNayab IkramSanna KannistoJan LütjohannOther Spaces, W A U H A U S, and Bogna Luiza Wiśniewska.

The exhibition and commissioned works are curated by HAM’s Public Art Curators Aleksandra Kiskonen and Kristiina Ljokkoi.

Artists whose works are introduced on the tours are Jussi JuurinenTuomas A. LaitinenMaija LuutonenPearla PigaoJani RuscicaKustaa Saksi, and Man Yau.

Maija Luutonen’s piece is curated by Mikko Oranen, HAM, and all others by HAM’s Public Art Curators Aleksandra Kiskonen and Kristiina Ljokkoi.

HAM Helsinki Art Museum’s Public Art team provides art expertise in the City of Helsinki’s public art acquisitions. Most of these acquisitions are enabled by Helsinki’s Percent for Art policy, which means that roughly one percent of a construction project’s budget is set aside for commissioning public art. Helsinki has followed the percent policy since 1991, and over 200 public artworks have been implemented in public buildings, parks, and squares with this funding model. 

Additionally, HAM Helsinki Art Museum commissions a few public artworks annually with a separate budget. The city receives some public artworks as donations. 

The works become permanent features of the City of Helsinki’s public art collection, managed by HAM Helsinki Art Museum. In time, each work requires maintenance, repair, and conservation, for which the museum’s Public Art Unit is responsible, together with the Urban Environment Division. The multi-professional unit takes care of various public art expert assignments. 

Guided tours


Tuesday 14 March at 16–17 / Jussi Juurinen / Verkkosaari Day-Care Centre

Tuesday 18 April at 15.30–16.30 / Kustaa Saksi / Etu-Töölö Upper Secondary School

Tuesday 25 April at 16–17 / Maija Luutonen / Lauttasaari Day-Care Centre

Tuesday 30 May at 16–17 / Pearla Pigao / Vuosaari Upper Secondary School

Tuesday 8 August at 16–17 / Jani Ruscica / Helsinki Upper Secondary School of Languages

Tuesday 15 August at 16–17 / Man Yau / Kuninkaantammi/ Kannelmäki Comprehensive School, Tammi

Tuesday 22 August at 16–17 / Tuomas A. Laitinen / Jätkäsaari Comprehensive School

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