Programme

EU-Sámi Week takes place in Brussels from 20th to 22nd June 2022 for the first time ever. The aim of the week is to strengthen the relationship between Sápmi and the EU. In addition to the political standpoints, the week also offers cultural program, including Sámi dance performance Starting from Staring by Katja and Birit Haarla. The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux is happy to support the event.

The Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland and The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux invite you to explore what the New European Bauhaus could mean in the Nordics. Drawing upon the concept of “Baukultur”, our Nordic panel of experts will consider how architecture and design contribute to a high quality and sustainable built environment.

We are excited to announce that The Finnish Cultural Institute, together with the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland, the Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute, and the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, are part of #StopHatredNow 2022, the full programme is out now!

Healing & Dealing is a two-part project taking place this spring. Dealing will be part of the Stop Hatred Now Festival in Helsinki, focusing on white people and encouraging them to take responsibility for their part within structural white supremacy. Healing will be organised in Brussels as a mirror event to the one in Helsinki, creating a safe space for Black people, with a focus on the healing of racial trauma.

SALWA's second Gathering, Resilient Grounds, Nurturing Soil at Casco Art Institute opens up conversations around how to create long-lasting infrastructures and models of care. The two-day event takes place 13th to 14th of May in Utrecht.

In the fifth session of In conversation with the Finnish institutes we discuss repatriation of cultural artifacts and the meaning of it, especially to the Sámi community. We examine the ways in which cultural institutions, art spaces and museums are part of the decolonial processes and have dialogue with minoritised groups and individuals.

Kitchen Sink consists of fantastic bric-a-brac and scraps of theatre history piled up in a giant sink. On top of all this a mystery play has been assembled, about the everyday; about dreams, poetry, and the real. 19-24.4.2022 at Sinne, Helsinki.

The Elastic Alliances exhibition will take place 8 April – 22 May 2022 at Gallery Hanaholmen. In conjunction with the exhibition, a seminar focusing on new forms of artistic collaboration will be arranged at Hanasaari Auditorium. Join us for the half-day seminar on Thursday the 28th of April at 1-6pm.

FAIR P(L)AY is a cycle initiated by the EUNIC-NL cluster focusing on fair practices in the cultural sector, aiming to discuss and implement new and existing ways of creating fair environments in terms of funding, remuneration, copyright and mobility in Europe. The first event will take place on April 5th at 15.00 at AMARE, a brand new space in The Hague devoted to arts.

Juho Myllylä, based in the Netherlands, has received funding from the TelepART Mobility Support to be able to rehearse and perform in Finland with Ensemble Gamut! music group. Myllylä is a recorder player, guitarist, singer and songwriter.

The participants for the Study Trip to the Netherlands organised by Frame Contemporary Art Finland and The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux have been selected. The  participants for the trip were selected through an open call announced in February. 

The latest artist supported by the TelepART Mobility Support is a contemporary circus and performance artist Miradonna Sirkka who is staying in the Netherlands for a 6-week residency. The residency is part of SEA Foundation’s longer-term research on art and sustainability and their project focusing on the Happiness.

On the occasion of Sámi National Day, we bring you the news that the first-ever EU-Sámi Week will be held this June, in Brussels. The aim of the ESW2022 is to increase awareness of Sámi culture, create networks and heighten the knowledge of Sámi issues among the policymakers in various sectors that affect Sámi interests.

We are delighted to announce the Horst Exhibition for 2022: The Act of Breathing will infuse the unique terrain of Asiat, Vilvoorde with 11 in-situ commissioned artworks engaging with the architectural and symbolic character of the former military base. Three other artists come together at Cinematek, Brussels to be counterparted with a programme of films curated by Monique Mbeka Phoba. The exhibition is curated by Sorana Munsya alongside with Horst’s Evelyn Simons. It is co-produced by KANAL - Centre Pompidou Brussels in the framework of Living Traces, a year-long programme between Kinshasa and Brussels.

The SALWA Gatherings is a series of 3 day events that bring together artists that relate to collective care practises and community-building through their work and lived experience.

Consent law, no blurred lines? Our annual International Women’s Day Nordic Breakfast Discussion will focus this year on consent law.

Frame Contemporary Art Finland and The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux invite Finland-based directors, curators or other visual arts professionals affiliated with artists’ associations, artist-run galleries or other art organisations (excluding art museums) to join a study trip to the Netherlands in May 2022. Eight participants are selected through this open call.

We are excited to announce that dance artist Ilona Salonen is currently in Brussels with funding from the TelepART Mobility Support Platform. The three and a half weeks will be an opportunity for dialogical reflection on artistic work in a culturally rich environment.

The Finnish movie Compartment No. 6 directed by Juho Kuosmanen is screened by The Polarise Nordic Film Nights on 20th of January, 19h00 and 19h10, at Cinema Galeries. The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux is more than happy to support the event. The film has gained extensive attention and is also running for the Oscars 2022!

Finnish visual artist Kristina Sedlerova-Villanen joined the new artist residency initiative KULT XL Ateliers in Brussels. Between January and June, she will be involved in artistic research on water manipulation systems. KULT XL Ateliers is an artist studio network that has the purpose of supporting emerging artists, literally in the heart of Europe.

The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux is looking for a part-time (19 hours/week) Communications Officer to join our team for permanent employment starting 10 January 2022.

Belgian choreographer Michiel Vandevelde is taking part in the contemporary dance festival Moving in November in Helsinki, running from 4 - 14.11.21. Dances of Death reflects on the concept of death in our time. New incurable diseases are haunting us, suicide rates are increasing yearly, climate change calls forth images of apocalypses. How can we cope with the idea of death? How would a dance of death be danced today?

(Re)discover 'Creating Safer Spaces'! If you missed our talk or if you want to rewatch a few fragments, you can. This talk was the 2nd part of 'In conversation with', a discussion series hosted by The Finnish Institutes.

The institute brings Elsa Tölli to this year’s edition of Transpoesie. Elsa will be preforming at Citizen's Garden in Brussels Saturday the 23rd at 6pm.

The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux will participate in this year’s Fête de la BD by bringing two comics creators, the couple Kaisa and Christoffer Leka from Finland to the festival. On the programme is an artist talk about the journey behind their latest book Russian Diaries (2020), book-signings, and a panel discussion!

Design installation 'Kaiku' is a collaboration between Amsterdam-based visual artist Aaro Murphy & Helsinki-based artist and herbalist Anna Karhu-Cormier, merging together their individual practices in the realms of sound and scent. The installation is on show in Helsinki from 09.09 until 26.09.21, and forms part of Helsinki Design Week.

In August 2021, A I S T I T is landing in Helsinki! As part of the prominent Helsinki Festival, the largest annual multi-arts festival in Finland, the fourth chapter Coming to our senses will unite the majority of works from other A I S T I T chapters in the Finnish capital.

From August 7Th until 15th, Finnish fashion designer Ervin Latimer, who was named Young Designer of the year in 2020, presents a fashion installation during the Antwerp Queer Arts Festival. ‘Possibilities of Potential Selves’ supports the miniature collection Latimer designed for the awards, and investigates the role of fashion in gender expression.

Finnish artist Jani Ruscica is showing new work during the solo exhibition Tarwe en Walnoot, at gallery 1646 in The Hague. The exhibition runs from 08.07 until 08.08.2021.

Helsinki-based gallery LOKAL takes part in COLLECTIBLE Salon, presenting a keen selection of contemporary Finnish Design with new works by Antrei Hartikainen, Hanna-Kaisa Korolainen, Nathalie Lautenbacher, Matias Karsikas, Naoto Niidome and Renata Jakowleff. 

On Tuesday the 25th of May, A+ Architecture in Belgium invites Mikko Summanen of Helsinki-based K2S Architects for an online lecture.

The Nordic diplomatic representations and cultural institutes are happy to welcome you to this year’s digital edition of the annual International Women’s Day Event on Monday the 8th of March from 9 am CEST. The panel includes Silvia Modig from Finland.

Join us for the third Lunch Break Talk, exploring the future of the Finnish design market with MARIANNE GOEBL, Managing Director at Artek, AMARYLLIS JACOBS, co-founder of Maniera Gallery, and designer JONAS LUTZ.

Join us on Wednesday 27.01 for a panel talk about colours and senses. How does colour affect a space or an object? What is the impact of colour on our environment and the way we perceive things? Finnish designers enter the conversation with local names, offering their perspective and sharing their practice.

Making the Market Lunch Break Talks is a series of online discussions that seek to facilitate new insights of the next generation art and design market. In these times of lockdown, and isolation we look for new solutions, idea-sharing, and best practice examples.

Amsterdam-based artist Aaro Murphy presents his latest work Vexer, an autonomously performing computer simulation and sound sculpture which composes itself in real life. This new work is on show at gallery Bologna.cc in Amsterdam from 3.10 until 11.10, and on www.vexer.space until forever.

This year's edition of TRANSPOESIE goes on-line, and features the Finnish writer Adrian Perera.

In Radical Angels, Jaakko Pallasvuo takes on the representation of angels in the history of ecclesiastical imagery. Departing from these divine ministries and angels, they intuitively explore how the footprint of ecclesiastical authority is still pressed onto the image of our hierarchies today. The exhibition is on show at 1646 gallery in The Hague, from 11.09 until 4.10.

Panel discussion organised as part of a EUNIC collaboration for Fête de la BD - Brussels Comic Strip Festival 2020. The panel is organised as a webinar and is a free event for an international audience. Registration required.

Four video works created during the lockdown last spring will be presented as a free outdoor screening at Musiikkitalo in Helsinki on Saturday 29th August, from 20–22.00. The works were born out of The Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes’ Together Alone project, a fast-paced open call in response to the Covid-19 crisis.

Join us for a discussion on how the body and form is evolving in fashion design, and to hear about how designer and stylists approach masculinity and gender in fashion. The discussion will take place on the 26th of August 2020 at 17.30, in Kämp Garden, Helsinki, and includes perspectives from different professionals in fashion design from Finland and Belgium.

New dates! ‘Call to the Wild’ will open on June 20th, running until November 29th. The expo at Maison Louis Carré can be visited by appointment on Saturdays and Sundays from 2 to 6pm. 'Call to the Wild' gathers three Finnish contemporary artists, presenting a refined combination of contemporary sculptural works by the glass artist Laura Laine, the textile artist Kustaa Saksi, and the sculptor Kim Simonsson in the wonderful house designed by Alvar Aalto.

The Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes network responds to the challenges of the COVID-19 epidemic by announcing an open call for art projects.

In these strange and challenging times, our thoughts go out to all those who have been affected; all artists, freelancers, cultural organisations and small businesses, caretakers and doctors. There is no telling what the coming days, weeks and even months will hold, so let’s just stay in and stay safe.

Welcome to a talk about contemporary Finnish design at this year's edition of Collectible! The talk will focus on Finnish contemporary design with perspectives from the Swedish speaking Finnish designers Jonas Lutz and Rasmus Palmgren, along with galleries and the founder of Lokal, Katja Hagelstam.

The Nordic diplomatic representations and cultural institutes are delighted to invite you to the annual International Women’s Day Event, at the Danish Embassy on Friday the 6th of March.

Finnish design gallery Lokal and The Finnish Cultural Institute will be present during Collectible, a contemporary design fair in Brussels.

In the first week of March – the week before International Women’s Day – the fourth edition of WoWmen! is coming to Brussels. This 'festival that hopes to be superfluous soon' - because the future will be feminist - offers a programme of performances, talks, debates, films and workshops that critically analyses the state of gender, art and society. Image: Rebecca Simons.

Mensch Maschine touches on elements of machine learnings fundaments: the feed, the successes, and failures. The exhibition opens on January 15th at Botanique, Brussels, and is part of the CPDP conference.

The TelepART Mobility Support Platform supports emerging and semi-established artists in showcasing their work internationally. At the core of this project is a new style of rapid-access funding. This funding is designed to support travel costs for performances between Finland and the Benelux countries. The TelepART Mobility Support Platform is complemented by an international visiting arts professionals programme.

A I S T I T - coming to our senses explores sensations and their physical, social, political and technological aspects in 2020’s Europe. Four Finnish Institutes (Benelux, France, Germany and London) join forces for this art project, which has been granted a 180 000 euros Taide² grant by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

With its Go-commission project, The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux aims to be an even stronger supporter of the creation of new works and the rise of creative arts in Finland and Central Europe. Built side by side with the rapid and flexible TelepART Mobility Support Platform, the Go-commission project focuses on international co-commissions.

On a blindingly white dance floor Iduozee unfolds with fluid elegance. Reconstruction the conventions of contemporary movement and breakdance, Iduozee´s debut work was also a contemplation on his personal body history. The choreographic arrangement is based on a set of repetitive gestures, that interplay with video, light and sound.

A panel discussion on masculinity from a critical, cross-cultural and intersectional perspective. We talk with speakers from a sociocultural and artistic background on normativity and redefining masculinity. With, amongst others, word artist and nudger Kevin Groen, Koen Dedoncker (Men Engage Flanders), songwriter Kriticos Pandelis Mwansa and Oscar Lehtinen (youth crisis worker at HelsinkiMissio). Free event.

DIASPORA MIXTAPES is a series of digital portraits, that celebrate the diversity of black cultural identity in the contemporary African Diaspora. Activists, artists, poets and musicians share and explore ideas around black life, futurity, fugitivity, (de)colonialism and kinship.

In their new performance titled, Score (2019), Artor Jesus Inkerö examines how language, gestures, and other ways of signaling and communicating between people may deny or allow access to specific groups, and how these physical patterns affect western culture as a whole.

Screening of the documentary Manning Up (Finland 2019). Manning Up follows the story of a comedian becoming the teenage boy he always knew he could be.

Voice Male gives performers, stand-up artists and slam poets 10 minutes on stage to share their vision of masculinity in the form of their choice.

Looped screening of Artor Jesus Inkerö's Swole. Swole documents Inkerö's dedication to health and fitness, in terms of nutrition and diet, as well as communities surrounding the health and fitness sphere.

Looped screening of Aurora Reinhard's Boygirl. In Boygirl three young people speak of their experiences of gender at a time when the whole word was by and large defined through a binary view.

‘Spaces of Peace – Architecture as Diplomacy’ conference approaches architecture as a tool for peace-building from spaces of peace mediation and reconstruction of post-conflict cities to building peacetime cities that prevent polarisation and conflict. The talks open up perspectives to how architecture and design can contribute to literally building peace now and in the future.

Join us for an evening of discussion on "The Embodiment of Masculinity" at the Goethe-Institut Niederlande in Amsterdam on Wednesday the 13.11.2019, where we will hear from prominent voices in the academic field and the art sectors.

The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux welcomes you to a Double Feature movie night at Korjaamo Kino Töölö! The Double Feature presents two documentaries: Manning Up (FI, 2019)  and Man Made (NL, 2019).

An evening of discussion on masculinity in the Swedish speaking regions in Finland, with a focus on two collections of testimonies.

The Youth / Masculinities panel discussion takes place at the National Museum of Finland at 18:00 on Wednesday 6.11., and centres around the impacts and perceptions of masculinities among young people today.

Re/defining Masculinities is a project by the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux that aims to present and discuss the subject of masculinities from new and cross-disciplinary perspectives, through a series of cultural events and academic discussions realised in Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland.

The RE/defining Masculinities week opens at 17:00 on Tuesday 5.11. in Maijansali at the Central Library Oodi with a free film screening of Gods of Molenbeek.

Poikien Talo’s RE/defining Masculinities workshop will ask participants to stop and examine masculinity and gender roles. Participants will be challenged to discuss how masculinity appears in different contexts and how it affects the well-being of us all.

Season XII – The Finnish Season / Keep Your Garden Alive is a group exhibition with eighteen Finnish renowned and emerging artists and designers who are currently reshaping the contemporary Finnish art and design scene. The exhibition is curated by Lise Coirier, Co-Founder of Spazio Nobile Gallery, and Kati Laakso, Director of the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux.

The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux participates in this year's Comics Festival in Brussels, as part of a EUNIC collaboration for the comics arts.

RE/Defining Finnish Contemporary Art & Design stretches across the entire year and aims to highlight Finnish designers in central Europe. Finland has a strong tradition and reputation in the field of design and our talented artists and designers should be more widely known among international collectors, gallerists and professionals in other fields. The project foregrounds both young designers as well as designers who already have extensive careers.

Together with Brussels based Spazio Nobile gallery we will be participating in several prominent design fairs as well as organise a number of exhibitions, all the while striving to redefine the wide range of skills and expertise in design and art that can be found in Finland.

Do girls and boys have equal opportunities in education and self-expression? Join the Nordic diplomatic representations and cultural institutes in Brussels for a breakfast debate on International Women’s Day.

The RE/defining Masculinities video series is a social media campaign which presents different people and their perspectives on the concept of masculinity in personal monologues. The videos include voices from different people in Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland.

What is the future of the European continent 100 years from now? BOZAR and Archa Theatre (Prague) invite you to Myths and Demons, the closing participative debate of the year-long project 1918 European Dreams of Modernity.

Building on EUNIC Brussels previous initiatives “European Angst” and “Sweating for Europe”, the project, made of 4 panel discussions, has the ambition to rethink a social contract which would take into account the peculiarities of our world today. The panel discussions aim to look to the future of Europe, using concepts of “protection” and “care” as a basis.

We Should All Be Dreaming focuses on the radical potential of dreams as both a healing and a subversive practice. Finnish choreographer and director Sonya Lindfors has a simple suggestion: we should all have to dream in a fundamental, utopian way about a communal future.

The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux, together with the Finnish baroque orchestra Ensemble Nylandia, CAV & MA (Centre d’Art Vocal et de Musique Ancienne) and the festival umbrella organisation, Festivals de Wallonie, is supporting a concert series called Baltic Tour.

18 April 2018 The Musiq’3 Festival is presenting a wide range of Finnish musicians this summer as part of this year’s Nordic Vibes theme. The three-day festival, which takes place at the end of June and the beginning of July, will feature music by leading Finnish artists as well as Finnish musicians who are in the early stages of their international career.

This summer, BOZAR centre for fine arts opens an exhibition together with artist-run galleries from across Europe. Jaakko Pallasvuo & Viktor Timofeev are represented by the Brussels-based Komplot gallery.

The Institute is inviting researchers, journalists and musicians from different parts of Europe to reflect on the conflicts of 100 years ago and how they are remembered. 

Kaarina Kaikkonen is creating a new work called If I had Wings – Social Elevator in the Marolles neighbourhood of Brussels. Faithful to her practice, Kaikkonen is once again constructing the installation using second-hand clothes.

Sonja Jokiniemi‘s new performance Blab is built around the concept of blabbing: the associative, potentially senseless, sometimes spontaneous, clumpy, not-knowing form of speech. With this new work, Jokiniemi continues to explore the chaotic experience of the world and how meaning is established.

Do you ever feel like society isn’t exactly what it could be? Do certain aspects of society tire you or piss you off? Do you just feel like cursing and smashing the patriarchy?

The video component of Nathaniel Mellors and Erkka Nissinen’s fascinating work The Aalto Natives, which Finland presented at the Venice Biennale in its centenary year, will be presented at Arts Centre Beursschouwburg in the heart of Brussels. The video installation tells the story of Finland’s history and cultural origins by way of absurdist satire while reflecting on prevailing power structures and questions of morality.

Roze Filmdagen is an annual LGBTQ Film Festival in Amsterdam that paints the town a bright shade of pink for about one week in March. The festival programme includes a broad spectrum of films on LGBTQ themes that are not always distributed widely.

The House of European History and the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts are bringing together scholars and artists from Central and Eastern Europe to present original views on the events of 1918 and their impact on the present.

Remembering 1918 – European Dreams of Modernity is a project of the Brussels-based Bozar Centre for Fine Arts, which is organised in partnership with European cultural and academic institutes. The aim of the project is to cast a critical and unbiased eye on the events of 1918 and their impact on the next one hundred years.

Sweating for Europe is a series of discussions on the most burning topics, bringing MEPs and citizens together in a unique context in front of the European Parliament building. The three-day event series takes place around an old fire truck that has been transformed into a movable wood burning sauna.

The Mobile Home project will address the home as a physical, mental and symbolic space as well as a socio-cultural concept. It is intended to mark the centenary of Finnish independence and forms part of the official Finland 100 centenary celebrations programme.

The ‘Our society’ programme speaks to practitioners within the arts and the role of culture both in our target countries as well as in broader Europe.