4.10.2025 – 9.1.2026
Opening: Saturday 4.10. at 17:00 at Stroom Den Haag, The Hague
This autumn, Stroom Den Haag proudly presents Ave bossa, bow ole, the first solo exhibition of Finnish artist Jenna Sutela in the Netherlands.
Ave bossa, bow ole is a sensory experience that encourages us to look, listen, and feel differently. With this presentation, Sutela invites the audience into a world where everything is interconnected: from microscopic life to DIY technologies, from intuition to compost.
Ave bossa, bow ole
The exhibition revolves around systems open to the wider environment—a world made of brains. It challenges the narrow understandings of consciousness that scaffold an anthropocentric logic of value and meaning, while considering interrelationships at all scales.
The starting point of this exhibition is the concept of ’tech povera’, a makeshift genre that Sutela coined to describe her approach to technology in the context of art. It refers to the 20th century art historical movement Arte Povera that saw art as a living process rather than a fixed object and materials as meaning. Vermi-Cell (2023), a work presented underground at Stroom den Haag, serves as an example of this approach. An earth battery powered sound piece, staged inside and around heaps of worm compost with metals and wire emerging from them, uses energy from the organic, decomposing matter to present a work and as a work.
At the same time as developing Ave bossa, bow ole, Jenna Sutela is preparing for her participation in the Pavilion of Finland at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, in 2026. For the 2026 Biennale, she will present new work commissioned by Frame Contemporary Art Finland.
Date: 4.10.2025 – 9.1.2026
Location: Stroom Den Haag, Hogewal 1-9, The Hague
Opening: Saturday 4.10.2025, 17:00 CET
Accessibility: Stroom Den Haag’s premises are accessible for wheelchair users. Companions/assistants are very welcome, including service dogs. You can find more accessibility information on Stroom Den Haag’s website.
Jenna Sutela
Jenna Sutela (1983) is known for her extraordinary, collaborative practice in which biology and computation mutually question and reinforce each other. The works include chance elements and evolving structures, being both live and alive.
Follow Jenna Sutela on instragram.
The exhibition is made possible thanks to Frame Contemporary Art Finland, the Mondriaan Fund, the Creative Industries Fund NL, the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux, and the Municipality of The Hague.
Cover images: (L) Jenna Sutela, Vermi Cell (2023). Photo by Dirk Tacke. (R) Jenna Sutela. Photo courtesy of the artist.