Welcome Tilda, our new Programme Assistant!

elo 19, 2025 | News

Our new Programme Assistant and Svenska Kulturfonden intern Tilda Forss joined the team this week. Here’s their first impressions of Brussels and the Institute!

”Bonjour à tous, I’m Tilda!

I’m the newest rascal to join this wonderful team, and I am very eager to get cracking on my 11-month internship here in the heart of Europe. I’m a 23-year-old Finn-Swede from Sibbo, who’s spent the last four years in Norway, moulding my love for theatre, contemporary dance, and hiking! This summer, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature and English from the University of Oslo, a degree that included a fantastic creative semester at the University of Auckland. I’m an avid writer and I also come packing experience in Design and Fine Arts. My hobbies include power yoga, reading classics, and extensive, rambling fiction writing, and my guilty pleasure is any and all sitcoms.

I was drawn to the internship because of the way culture is increasingly underestimated in the current political climate. I am honoured to soon be able to affect the intersectional contemporary art scene, excited to dust off my French, and looking forward to networking in Brussels’ sea of galleries. Further, I’m thrilled to get to work in such a sustainable and inclusive office. My goal is to coordinate events that will subvert expectations, strengthen communities, and remind people that none of us are in this alone.

So far, my first impressions of Brussels have been that it’s a bustling place, completely different from the grey, stale EU-centre I was expecting, and much warmer too! Did I pack enough sunscreen? You bet I didn’t! If you see me reading at a café in Saint-Gilles, come say hi! It’s going to be a very good year!”

Tilda joins us as part of the Svenska kulturfonden (SKF) / The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland internship.

 

Cover photo: Ela Suleymangil / Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux

Oulu unveils its 2026 programme as the European Capital of Culture in Brussels

The European Capitals of Culture 2026, Oulu and Trenčín, unveiled their programmes to audiences in Brussels on the 4th of November.

blood and thunder: A conversation with Kevin Fay

An in-depth interview with Kevin Fay about his artistic process, balancing the personal and the political, and his use of tender improvisation.

Explore gender identity through movement and sound with Kevin Fay at TOIVOLA festival

Join Kevin Fay and Guillaume Soula on 14 November at TOIVOLA Festival for a performance and workshop exploring gender identity.

Tiina Pyykkinen

Tiina Pyykkinen is a Helsinki-based visual artist who works primarily with paintings and installations, focusing on the themes of communication, individual and collective memory, and time and its disorder as a bodily experience.

Sara Bjarland

Sara Bjarland is a Finnish artist based in Amsterdam. She investigates how worthless materials can serve as meaning carriers for a new life as a work of art.