Finland opens call for 2019 Venice Biennale pavilion

Finland has launched an open call for its pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale, well before the close of the 2017 edition. Proposals must be submitted by January 10, 2018, and include at least one Finnish artist or resident. Curators and artists may apply individually or as a collective, with international experience required. The selection jury includes Maija Tanninen-Mattila (Helsinki Art Museum director), Natasha Ginwala (curator), Terike Haapoja (artist), and Raija Koli (Frame Contemporary Art Finland director). Shortlisted candidates must present detailed plans by March 18, 2018, with final selection in April 2018. The pavilion, a wooden structure in the Giardini designed by Alvar Aalto in 1956, poses a spatial challenge. For the 2017 Biennale, Nathaniel Mellors and Erkka Nissinen created "The Aalto Natives" inside the pavilion, curated by Xander Karskens, an installation that ironically reworks Finnish national stereotypes.