Through this annual series of commissions, Saastamoinen Foundation expands its permanent collection by commissioning an artwork from a visionary international artist who reflects our contemporary experience. In doing so, InCollection forms a body of timely works which each offer alternate perspectives on the current sociopolitical climate and our collective future. At the same time, the project gives artists the opportunity to create an exhibition curated exclusively for EMMA’s space: a former printing house and a classic example of 1960s concrete brutalism designed by esteemed Finnish architect Aarno Ruusuvuori. Through multiple site visits, artists become acquainted with the museum’s architecture and its forest surroundings. Launched in 2018, InCollection gives EMMA and the Foundation the opportunity to directly engage in a deeper exchange of ideas with artists, enabling their work to materialize in the best possible way.

The next exhibition in the InCollection series will be Pilvi Takala’s Close Watch, which will open at EMMA early in 2023. The work is commissioned by Frame Contemporary Art Finland and co-produced by Frame and the Saastamoinen Foundation for the Pavilion of Finland at the 59th Venice Biennale, which premieres in April 2022. Takala is an award-winning Finnish artist who examines various communities and the unwritten rules they obey. At EMMA, the multi-channel video installation Close Watch will be displayed in a new and expanded spatial display connected to EMMA’s architecture. The exhibition will offer audiences an experiential and surprising opportunity to explore the themes of power and safety in our everyday environments. The exhibition is curated by Christina Li.

The sixth artist joining the InCollection series is French artist Pierre Huyghe. The exhibition will revolve around Abyssal Plain, an aquarium to be accessioned to the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection. For Huyghe, the exhibition ritual is not an asymmetrical experience but an encounter with a sentient milieu. He will conceive a wide exhibition at EMMA that will spread outside the walls of the museum, interacting with the surrounding forest grounds. The exhibition will be curated by EMMA’s Chief Curator Arja Miller and Director of Creator Projects, Simon Friese.

Earlier commissions in this series have been Alicja Kwade’s Trans-For-Men (Fibonacci) (2018), Tatsuo Miyajima’s Sky of Time (2019), Eeva-Leena Eklund’s Dance with Me and Lilac Eyes (2020)and Chiharu Shiota’s Tracing Boundaries (2021). Linked together as a series, each artist adds their distinct voice to a gradually unfolding conversation. The InCollection continuum forms its own special microcosm within the Saastamoinen Foundation’s Art Collection and EMMA’s exhibition programme. All artists featured to date have created a captivating audience experience that interacts compellingly with EMMA’s unique architecture and environment.

Coming up:   
Pilvi Takala: Close Watch 1.2.–7.5.2023
Pierre Huyghe: Abyssal Plain 7.6.2023– early 2024

On view:
Chiharu Shiota: Tracing Boundaries 27.10.2021–27.11.2022