Invitation to press viewing: Exhibition of contemporary art exploring illness to open at Villa Gyllenberg in April 2025

Health as a project

The body and health have become a life-fulfilling project, with no room for reflection on vulnerability or death. We fear illness and the decay of the body. We believe we can control our bodies and monitor our health using various devices and applications. Through diet, exercise, medication, beauty treatments and surgeries, we strive for unrealistic physical perfection.

Exhibition curator Magdalena Åberg explains how practicing yoga stimulated her interest in physicality in a new way. While Googling, she came across old medical posters, which inspired her to paint her own versions of the subject.

“I used to find everything related to illness repulsive, and you could say that painting illnesses and internal organs is my way of facing this fear,” Åberg says.

The exhibition features artists whose works explore the theme of corporeality or illness: disease, medicalisation, internal organs, body parts, and mental health. Art can be a way for both creators and viewers to confront fears related to illness, physical and mental decline, and ultimately death.

Clinics and convalescents

The theme of care and the relationship between patients and medical staff is also present in the exhibition. Albert Edelfelt's portrait of the physician Johan Wilhelm Runeberg is exhibited side by side with Viggo Wallensköld's painting The Professional Helper. These works offer perspectives on the authority of doctors and the hierarchies of the healthcare industry, the impersonal care of large healthcare systems, and the pressure and workload experienced by healthcare staff.

The perspective of relatives in turn is revealed through Åberg's and Rafael Wardi's works that portray loved ones with memory disorders. How far should care go and how can the patient's wishes be respected when there is only a human shell left? Hanna Vihriälä's Overhead Trapeze forces the viewer to consider the perspective of a long-term patient, while Helene Schjerfbeck's lithograph The Convalescent offers hope.

Illness and death as a part of life

The fragility and infirmity that are part of being sick remind us of our mortality and foster compassion for one another. The art presented in the exhibition asks whether we can find beauty within our bodies, even in their illness?

“Illness today is studied and narrated by many different professions, and there is a diagnosis for everything. I wanted to choose art for the exhibition that makes one think about larger existential questions, because it is a perspective that is often overlooked. Art is a way of approaching these difficult topics,” says Åberg.

Morbus is Latin and means disease or illness. The exhibition was inspired by the medical research support of the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation. The founders were interested in the connection between the mind and the body, and the foundation supports psychosomatic medicine by awarding substantial grants.

“It is both fun and challenging to highlight this theme in an exhibition,” comments Chief Curator Lotta Nylund. “The exhibition will be a diverse and thought-provoking entity, and Magdalena’s excellent texts will accompany the visitor through the exhibition experience.”

Several of the artworks were created this year especially for Morbus, and some are only on view at this exhibition. Examples of these are the installation by Oscar Chan Yik Long and Saara Ekström’s clay sculptures.

The artists presented in the exhibition are: Oscar Chan Yik Long, Saara Ekström, Raija Jokinen, Ulla Jokisalo, Tapani Kokko, Ida Koitila, Henrika Lax, Johanna Naukkarinen, Eeti Piiroinen, Jyrki Riekki, Mari Sunna, Pauliina Turakka Purhonen, Hanna Vihriälä, Viggo Wallensköld and Magdalena Åberg, as well as Albert Edelfelt, Helene Schjerfbeck, Hugo Simberg and Rafael Wardi.

Publication and program

A trilingual exhibition publication authored by Magdalena Åberg will be published in connection with the exhibition. The reader gets to experience the artist’s journey into the body and how one can encounter one’s physicality through visual art. In her historical essay, Åberg opens up interesting perspectives on the history of medicine and health. The book features images of works by all of the artists in the exhibition.

Program such as lectures, panel discussions and artist meetings will be organized during the exhibition. The program will be updated to the museum’s website.

Contacts

Lotta Nylund, Chief Curator, lotta.nylund@gyllenbergs.fi, +358 40 576 1753

Siiri Oinonen, Head of Customer and Program Services, siiri.oinonen@gyllenbergs.fi, +358 40 825 4763 (photos and program)
Magdalena Åberg, Exhibition Curator, magdalena@aberg.fi

Tour bookings

villa@gyllenbergs.fi

Address

Kuusisaarenpolku 11
00340 Helsinki