Feels Like Home

Feels Like Home, Kiasma’s new collection exhibition, explores notions of home and belonging. Where does our sense of belonging—whether to a place or to a community—come from? What if that feeling is wrought with contradiction? The works in this exhibition present home as a physical location, as a social entity and even as a state of mind. Belonging, and its opposite, alienation, shape our identity, our relationships, the society around us, the world at large. Sometimes, that sense is defined by a longing, whether for the past or for a place left behind. In this exhibition, the personal is inextricably intertwined with social change and world events. Everything from language and nationality to the state itself can be harnessed as a means to a political end; to foster or to undermine our collective sense of togetherness. The exhibition looks not only backwards but forwards too, highlighting the museum’s role as a place where possible futures can be imagined. 

The exhibition has been drawn from the Finnish National Gallery’s collections and features works by 49 artists, including well-known names like Cildo Meireles and Kalervo Palsa. It will also present recent acquisitions by artists such as Samira Elagoz and Z Walsh, Olof Marsja, Jaakko Pietiläinen, Sepideh Rahaa and Anastasia Sosunova. 

Feels Like Home also comprises two brand new commissions. Essi Kausalainen’s performative work titled They whistled and walked from room to room (2024) will be realised in collaboration with Kiasma’s museum guards, while in Joonas Hyvönen’s web-based and gamified Mehen (2024), the viewer is joined at the gates of death by a group of long forgotten avatars and tasked with navigating their way across a digital afterlife. 

The exhibition is curated by Saara Hacklin, Chief Curator of Collections, and Curators Saara Karhunen and Satu Oksanen. The exhibition catalogue also features contributions from Leevi Haapala, Museum Director, philosopher Irina Poleshchuk and author and documentary filmmaker Carmen Baltzar. 

Featured artists: Titta Aaltonen, Petri Ala-Maunus, Ahmed Al-Nawas, Farah Al Qasimi, Elina Brotherus, Berlinde de Bruyckere, Otto Byström, Samira Elagoz & Z Walsh, Veli Granö, Marjatta Hanhijoki, Mona Hatoum, Maarit Hohteri, Henna Hyvärinen, Joonas Hyvönen, Inka-Maaria Jurvanen, Tellervo Kalleinen & Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Essi Kausalainen, Hertta Kiiski, Elle Klarskov Jørgensen, Jannis Kounellis, Mikko Kuorinki, Raakel Kuukka, Runo Lagomarsino, Jouni S. Laiti, Jouko Lehtola, Niina Lehtonen Braun, Henrietta Lehtonen, Susanna Majuri, Olof Marsja, Cildo Meireles, Anneli Nygren, Frida Orupabo, Kalervo Palsa, Anu Pennanen, Emma Peura, Jaakko Pietiläinen, Tiina Pyykkinen, Sepideh Rahaa, Bita Razavi, Jani Ruscica, Azar Saiyar, Anastasia Sosunova, Kaarlo Stauffer, Nestori Syrjälä, Lesia Vasylchenko, Danh Võ and Laura Wesamaa. 

The Finnish National Gallery’s contemporary art collection comprises around 8,800 works dating from the 1970s to the present day. Kiasma’s collection exhibitions are extensive curated displays that place newly acquired works within a broader historical context. The themes chosen for these exhibitions reflect the issues of the day and highlight the latest developments within contemporary art. Feels Like Home is set to run throughout 2024 and will also shape Kiasma Theatre’s offering and the museum’s public programming.