Events and courses

IHME Helsinki brings together the worlds of art and science in the time of climate crisis and biodiversity loss. The annual public commission by an internationally recognized artist continues to be the core of the programme. In addition to that IHME Helsinki produces 4-6 events every year in collaboration with art and scientific institutions. IHME Helsinki aims at carbon neutrality in all its activities. The latest event is on top of the list.

Want to hear about the events among the first ones? Join our mailing list >>

Coming up next

IHME Helsinki 2023 Commission: Hiwa K, Chicago Boys – While We Were Singing, They Were Dreaming

17.4–27.5.2023 Stoa Cultural Centre and other public spaces in (Eastern) Helsinki, to be announced later, free admission

Welcome to join Kurdish artist and musician Hiwa K’s collective IHME Helsinki 2023 Commission! Chicago Boys – While We Were Singing, They Were Dreaming invites everyone of all cultural backgrounds, ages, and educations to share their stories, play music and sing together, according to their abilities. At the core of Chicago Boys are the people who form an amateur band and discussion group. We are looking for professional and amateur musicians, and non-musicians, of different ethnic backgrounds and ages, to join the band. You can participate in the band either for the whole six weeks or just by coming to the open rehearsals on Saturdays 22.4., 29.4., 6.5., 13.5., 20.5. and 27.5. when it suits you.

The details of the event, locations and times of the rehearsals will be updated during spring!

Past events

IHME Helsinki x The Night of Science 12.1.2023

Forest Mind – Screening and discussion, at 18 – 21, Finnkino Maxim, auditorium 2 (Kluuvikatu 1)

We present the video essay Forest Mind by the Swiss artist Ursula Biemann. Set in the Amazon forests, the work is based on scientific and shamanistic perspectives on being with the world.

The knowledge of indigenous peoples is strongly present in Forest Mind, as Biemann has collaborated with the indigenous Inga community in Colombia for several years. The work brings their science based on the use of shamanistic Ayahuasca into dialogue with a western scientific perspective and modern science such as plant neurobiology or quantum biology. The video essay will be shown twice during the evening and in between there will be a discussion with experts about the themes of the essay.

The Great Cormorant – a Bird Worthy of a Song

We invite everyone to join us to hear about cormorants! As part of the Environmental Humanities Month’s programme, we organize an online event open to everyone about these big black birds and Chorus Sinesis on Wednesday 9 November 2022 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

During The Great Cormorant – a Bird Worthy of a Song event curator Ulla Taipale talks about cormorants, the Baltic Sea and Chorus sinensis and shows audio-visual material exhibited in Pori Art Museum last summer. The event is held in English in Zoom and requires registration.

Learning from Doubt – Student Assignments

The final works by students on IHME Helsinki Commission 2022, Amar Kanwar’s Learning from Doubt online course, will be presented during Environmental Humanities Month on 3 November 2022 from 4 pm to 7 pm. The event is going to be an online event and open for all. IHME Helsinki organizes the event in collaboration with the Environmental Humanities Hub of the University of Helsinki.

Geomancers Screening Programme: Inspiration for sustainable future

IHME Helsinki presents a free screening of video works offering perspectives on the future of humanity and our planet at 17:30 on 5 October 2022 at Finnkino Maxim in Helsinki.

Geomancers features nine video works that share a concern about the accelerating environmental crisis, the sixth wave of extinction, the marginalization of indigenous communities, and the loss of traditional knowledge. The film programme has been curated by Anna Lovecchio and Magdalena Magiera, curators at NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, a research centre of Nanyang Technological University. The video works were originally selected as part of the multimedia exhibition Free Jazz IV. Geomancers (NTU CCA Singapore, 14–23 January 2022).

The works take the viewer from the shores of Panangatan in the Philippines to the Lofoten Islands in Northern Norway, they give voice to the consciousness of indigenous peoples and their folk tales, and show the complexity of the relationship between the human-shaped world and the natural environment. Together, they offer an opportunity to expand our ways of looking at the world outside the lens of scientific rationalism. The creators of the video works are award-winning artists working around the globe.

The screening is free of charge and does not require advance registration but seats are limited and will be filled in order of arrival.

The screening is also a part of Frame Contemporary Art Finland’s Rehearsing Hospitalities programme’s satellite events.

Screening of Amar Kanwar’s films

IHME Helsinki will screen films by artist and filmmaker Amar Kanwar for the first time in Finland on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 from 6:00 pm to 8:45 pm. in the Bio Rex Cinema at Lasipalatsi. The artist will be present and the audience has an opportunity to ask questions after the screening.

The award-winning artist’s films are now being shown for the first time in Finland. Open to all and free of charge, this film screening concludes the IHME Helsinki 2022 Commission, the Learning from Doubt online course.

Advance registration is not required to attend the screening. The language of the films is English.

IHME Participates in International Day of Forests

Participate in Katie Paterson’s IHME Commission 2021 To Burn, Forest, Fire on International Day of Forests on March 21, 2022.

IHME has distributed and mailed about 200 incense packages to people interested in the ceremonies in Finland and abroad. The incense package distribution has ended but you can join the celebration of the International Day of Forests by following the event on IHME’s Instagram with hashtags #IntlForestDay and #ToBurnForestFire.

Artist Katie Paterson’s welcoming talk can be followed on IHME’s InstagramLive at 8-9 pm EEST.

IHME’s Nature Dialogue event

When: Wednesday, March 9, 2022, 5.30–7.30pm

Where: The meeting place is in Helsinki city centre. The precise location will be shared with participants closer to the event.

What is your relationship with nature? Have you experienced a work of art that made you consider your environment in a different way? Have you experienced a work of art that embodied your nature experiences or focused your thoughts on biodiversity loss? What relationship do other art lovers have? What can art do to halt the loss of nature?

We invite all art lovers to join in this discussion, especially those of you who do not normally participate in discussions like this. We are interested to hear about your experiences! The discussion is part of Sitra’s Nature Dialogue Day.

Register by March 2 with IHME’s Cultural Producer Päivi Matala: paivi.matala [at] ihmehelsinki.fi

Welcome aboard! You are needed!

IHME’s Night of Science: ART + SCIENCE + FOREST

IHME’s Night of Science event on Jan 20, 2022 combined art, science and the theme of the forest.

At the discussion Professor of Meteorology Timo Vesala answered the question: Is the management of Finnish forests on a sustainable basis? The documentation of the talk (subtitled in English) will be available on IHME’s YouTube channel during March.

Find the documentations of the passed events

Conversation: Katie Paterson & David Haskell

David Haskell is one of the scientists that Katie has collaborated with in making IHME Helsinki Commission 2021, To Burn, Forest, Fire. The Commission consists of the scent of the first-ever forest on earth and of the last forest of the age of climate crisis. These scents have been turned into incense.

Katie’s dialogue with Professor Haskell was particularly important for defining the scent of the last forest, and he has also contributed an essay to the booklet to be published as part of the project.

David Haskell’s work as a writer, scientist, and sound recordist reminds us that the essence and beauty of life emerge from relationships and interdependence. He is the author of the prize-winning books The Forest Unseen and The Songs of Trees, and is a Professor at Sewanee: The University of the South, Tennessee, USA.

The documentation of the online conversation can be viewed on IHME’s YouTube channel >>

IHME Helsinki podcast: Art, Science, Ecology

Members of IHME Helsinki’s Advisory Board are to host a series of podcasts on the themes of Art, Science and Ecology. They will discuss new approaches in art and in the lives of artists and art institutions responding to the environmental crisis. How can we raise awareness and activate our audiences, reduce our carbon emissions, create a more sustainable art world, and promote a cultural shift in which less is more?

Helsinki Open Waves

The podcast is produced in collaboration with Helsinki Open Waves. HOW is a translingual non-profit, fee-free open platform that aims to design and initiate a new sustainable platform for people who live in Finland to represent themselves with their own language and culture in order to contribute to a more diverse society.

The podcasts will be released on several platforms: Helsinki Open Waves, Spotify, Apple podcast, Soundcloud.

We would love to have your feedback. Please give it here >>

Release dates:

Art, Science, Ecology course

In January 2021, the contemporary art commissioning agency IHME Helsinki will launch an Art, Science, Ecology course in cooperation with the Institute of Sustainability of the University of Helsinki and the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of the Arts Helsinki. Internationally acclaimed artists act as lecturers for the course and facilitators of the workshops. All lectures of the course are conducted online and are free and open to anyone interested. The workshops of the course are aimed at students of partner universities. The course is in English.

The lecturers of the course and the facilitators of the workshops are artists, scientists and curators from Finland and abroad: artist and BIOS research institute researcher Antti Majava, UK-based researcher and artist Susan Schuppli, IHME Helsinki Commission 2020 Norwegian artist Jana Winderen, IHME Helsinki Commission 2021 Scottish artist Katie Paterson, professor emeritus Jan Zalasiewicz (University of Leicester), paleoclimatologist J.Sakari Salonen (Helsinki University), Helsinki based artist Samir Bhowmik and IHME Helsinki Executive Director and Curator Paula Toppila.

25.1.2021 at 16:00-17:00 EEST Artist, researcher Antti Majava: Art – a Radical Transition Strategy >> The lecture documentation >>

8.2.2021 at 16:00-17:00 EEST Artist Katie Paterson – On Artistic Practice >>

10.2.2021 at 16:00-17:00 EEST Artist Katie Paterson, Emeritus Professor of Palaeobiology Jan Zalasiewicz , Docent in Paleoclimatology J. Sakari Salonen: IHME Helsinki Commission 2021: To Burn, Forest, Fire >> The conversation documentation >>

16.2.2021 at 16:00-18:00 EEST Artist, Researcher Susan Schuppli: Ice Cores – FILM AND ONLINE LECTURE >> The lecture documentation >>

24.2.2021 at 16:00-17:00 EEST Artist Jana Winderen: Listening Through the Dead Zones, the work for a sound installation >> The lecture documentation >>

15.3.2021 at 16:00–17:00 EEST Artist Samir Bhowmik: Media Cultures of Extraction >> The lecture documentation >>

23.3.2021 at 16:00-17:00 EEST IHME’s Executive Director, Curator Paula Toppila: Ecologically sustainable curating – IHME Helsinki. Collaboration with the artists Jana Winderen and Katie Paterson. >> The lecture documentation >>

The course info >>

The lecture documentations at IHME’s YouTube channel >>

Eco-seminar

The environmental crisis is also a crisis of the artworld, requiring concrete action instead of mere words. The contemporary art organisations Frame Contemporary Art Finland, IHME Helsinki, Mustarinda and HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme are holding an open, free, one-day webinar Environmental Crisis – From Words to Deeds in the Field of Art on 19 November 2020.

The seminar languages were Finnish and English. Documentations and summaries in Finnish and English on IHME Helsinki’s YouTube channel.

Speakers >>

Programme

9:00 Opening remarks (in Finnish)
Paula Toppila, Executive Director, IHME Helsinki
Raija Koli, CEO, Frame Contemporary Art Finland

9:15 Greeting by the Minister of Environment (in Finnish, summary in Finnish and in English >>)
Krista Mikkonen, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change

9:35 Why is it necessary to take climate action? (in Finnish, summary in Finnish and English >>)
Mari Pantsar, Director, Carbon Neutral Circular Economy, Sitra

9:50 Discussion and questions

9:55 Break

10:00 Towards a new cultural ecology (in English, summary in Finnish and English >>)
Graciela Melitsko Thornton, Leader of Creative Green Programme, Julie’s Bicycle (in English)

10:30 Discussion and questions

11:00 Do we need explorers?
Jana Winderen, sound artist, IHME Helsinki commission 2020

11:10 – 11:20 Discussion and questions

—

11:30-12:30 Lunch break

—

12:30 Ecologically sustainable curation and production (in Finnish, summary in English >>)
Paula Toppila, Executive Director and Curator, IHME Helsinki

12:45 Slow and ecological travel (in Finnish)
Juha Huuskonen, Director, HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme

13:00 Together on the hill – care and hospitality as a tool for more ecological residency practice (in Finnish , summary in English >>)
Sanna Ritvanen, Active member, Mustarinda

13:15 Environmental actions of an art museum (in Finnish, summary in English >>)
Jonna Hurskainen, Head of Helsinki Biennial, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, and Kiira Kivisaari, environmental coordinator, Helsinki Biennial, HAM Helsinki Art Museum

13:30 Internationality, funding and the environment (in Finnish, summary in Finnish and English >>)
Raija Koli, CEO, Frame Contemporary Art Finland

13:45 Discussion and questions

—

14:00 – 14:30 Coffee break

—

14:30 Artist’s practice and opportunities to choose (in Finnish, summary in Finnish and English >>)
Alma Heikkilä, visual artist and Antti Majava, visual artist

14:50 The carbon footprint of an art organization (in Finnish, summary in Finnish and English >>)
Saara Korpela, Eco-Coordinator, IHME, Frame, HIAP and Mustarinda

15:05 Discussion and questions

15:15 Summary and instructions for the group discussions

15:20 Break

15:25 Group discussions (preliminary registration has ended, the groups are full)

16:25 The way forward. Summary of working-group discussions

16:45 Closing remarks

The documentations of the speeches on IHME’s YouTube channel.