Helsinki Biennale 2023 Explores Perception and Epistemological Crisis

The Helsinki Biennale 2023, curated by Joasia Krysa with curatorial and artificial intelligences, takes place on Vallisaari island, a former military base turned nature reserve. The exhibition, titled 'New Directions May Emerge,' features 25 works that interrogate perception, sense-making, and knowledge production amid ecological and epistemological crises. Key works include Matti Aikio's 'Oikos' (2023), a video installation with Sámi songs; Adrián Villar Rojas's 'From the Series The End of Imagination' (2023), fifteen sculptures hidden in trees and buildings; and Ahmed Al-Nawas and Minna Henriksson's AR piece 'Green Gold' (2023). The biennale is structured around three thematic threads: contamination, agency, and regeneration. Other notable projects include Tuula Närhinen's 'Plastic Horizon' (2019–23), a collection of Baltic plastic debris; Sepideh Rahaa's 'Songs to Earth, Songs to Seeds' (2023), documenting rice cultivation in Iran; and PHOSfate's 'PHOSfate' (2023), addressing phosphate mining in Western Sahara. The exhibition runs from June to September 2023.