The Helsinki Biennial Art Mediation Forum 2023: An Anthology

Publication
2023 - HAM, Helsinki Art Museum Publication (FI)
Editors: Bassam El Baroni and Patrizia Costantin. Contributors: Filipa Ramos, Adeena Mey, Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás, Cyane Findji and Myriam Gras, Aska Mayer, Martina Šerešová, Micol Curatolo, Julia Fidder. Commissioning Editor: Joasia Krysa. Graphic Design: The Rodina. 



The Helsinki Biennial Art Mediation Forum 2023 is a collaboration between ViCCA (Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art) at Aalto University’s School of ARTS and the Helsinki Biennial 2023. The project focuses on mediation as an ‘articulation space’ for the biennial’s themes and artistic contributions. 

This publication is a compilation of newly commissioned essays and constitute the outcome of The Curatorial School of ‘May’, coming together in a sister publication to the Helsinki Biennial catalogue. Together with Cyane Findji, a method has been developed for thinking with the sea and embracing our environment as a complex, omnidirectional entity.


“In a text titled Navigating Turbulence—Towards the Making of Space, Cyane Findji and Myriam Gras present an intriguing voyage that borrows from the investigative methodologies of geology to traverse the expansive maritime landscape of the Baltic Sea. The biennial and its context are here mediated through various island influences. The text seeks to explore the thematic framework of the biennial while making the primary focus water in its various material states. The trajectory proposed by Findji and Gras disrupts the established dichotomy between those confined to the mainland and those tethered to the islands. Instead, it advocates for a more fluid, experiential understanding of the biennial that is informed by the unseen that dwells beneath the sea surrounding Vallisaari. The text invites us to navigate the Baltic Sea vertically, to pierce its surface, plunging into its depths to explore the layers of contamination and resilience therein, engaging our senses in a multidimensional exploration. Once back on the surface, we re-emerge with what the authors define as manifold points of departure to be explored in our experience of the Helsinki Biennial 2023” eds. Bassam El Baroni and Patrizia Costantin


We would like to thank Arttu Polojärvi, Otto Puolakka, Alice Petry, Teemu Päivärinta and Lasse Turja of Aalto University, and Tim Hammer, Hayo Hendrikse, Laura van Dijke, and Tom Willems of TU Delft, as well as Cody Owen, who informed us about the current research and facilitated access to the Aalto Ice and Wave tank.