In spring 2026, Kiasma will present a major exhibition of contemporary Sámi art, organised in collaboration with the Sámi Museum Siida. Alongside this, three solo exhibitions will feature both international and Finnish perspectives. British artist Oliver Beer will unveil a video opera set among prehistoric cave paintings, where eight singers from across the world perform songs tied to their earliest musical memories. Estonian sculptor Edith Karlson will transform Kiasma’s galleries with her enigmatic installations populated by human and animal figures that blur the boundaries between species. Finnish painter Emma Ainala will showcase oil paintings exploring themes of girlhood and womanhood, weaving together influences from art history to horror imagery. Kiasma’s new collection exhibition will in turn embrace imagination and the inexplicable. The Kiasma Theatre programme opens the door to the magical.
We Who Remain – Sámi Art in Focus
March 27–September 6, 2026
Organised jointly by Kiasma and the Sámi Museum Siida, this exhibition presents contemporary art by and about the Sámi community across the Sápmi territories of Finland, Sweden, and Norway.
The Sápmi region, which today spans four countries, existed long before the emergence of Nordic nation-states or national ideologies. The exhibition invites viewers to explore Sámi identity as expressed by the Sámi themselves. The exhibition highlights the complexities of Sámi experience, showing how Sámi identity endures and remains vibrant despite externally imposed pressures.
Curated by Saami Rights advocate, essayist and musician Petra Laiti, the exhibition features more than 20 artists and works created from the 1970s to the present day.
“This is the first major exhibition of Sámi contemporary art and duodji (Sámi handicrafts) ever presented in Helsinki. It is also significant that the exhibition has been curated by Sámi themselves,” says Taina Máret Pieski, Director of the Sámi Museum Siida.
Oliver Beer: Resonance Project—The Cave
November 6, 2026–2027
Among the highlights of Kiasma’s autumn programme is Resonance Project: The Cave, an immersive 8-screen and 16-channel video opera by British artist Oliver Beer. Premiered to critical acclaim at the 2024 Lyon Biennale, the work now makes its Nordic debut in a new museum setting.
Filmed in one of the best-preserved prehistoric caves in southwestern France—home to some of the world’s earliest known artworks—The Cave brings together eight singers from across the globe, each invited by Beer to perform fragments of a song connected to their earliest musical memory. Reflecting a wide range of cultural and geographic origins, the work features American-Canadian singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, French artist Woodkid, Canadian-Haitian musician Mélissa Laveaux, alongside singers from Japan, Denmark, Lebanon and Australia.
Granted rare access to this archaeologically significant site, Beer discovered that the cave’s ancient paintings had been placed in areas of heightened acoustic resonance. Each singer performs in tune with the cave’s natural harmonics, their voices naturally amplified by the cave and weaving together in the gallery space into a haunting polyphony—meticulously recomposed by Beer into a resonant tapestry of lullabies, folk songs, and ancestral melodies.
Oliver Beer’s practice fuses music with visual art. Since 2007, he has been developing his Resonance Project—a series of works exploring the relationship between voice, architecture, and inherited memory. Previous iterations have taken place in sites including the Ottoman baths of Istanbul and the emblematic glass-clad tubular walkways of the Centre Pompidou. The Cave marks a major evolution in the series.
The exhibition is curated by Patrik Nyberg and Anna Mustonen from Kiasma.
Edith Karlson
April 17–September 27, 2026
Edith Karlson’s darkly evocative installations are inhabited by figures that blur the line between human and other animals. Their features often merge, creating enigmatic forms that make it difficult to discern where one ends and another begins. Her large-scale sculptures combine diverse materials such as clay, concrete, and silicone. Many bear a raw, unfinished quality, with unglazed clay surfaces that emphasise their rough tactility. Karlson’s work delves into the primal nature of humanity, exploring how instinctual desires lie hidden beneath the polished façade of societal convention.
Tallinn-based Karlson has exhibited widely both in Estonia and internationally, including venues such as the Sapieha Palace Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius (2025), the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (2021), the KUMU Art Museum (2019–2020), and the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig (2018). She also represented Estonia at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
The exhibition is curated by Piia Oksanen from Kiasma.
Emma Ainala
October 9, 2026–2027
Emma Ainala’s large-scale, dreamlike oil paintings delve into themes around femininity, girlhood, the gaze, and the experience of being its object. Drawing from diverse visual sources—including horror imagery, internet culture, fashion, and art history—her intricately detailed works overflow with roses, bows, cream cakes, satin ribbons, lace, and drapery. At the heart of these compositions are ambiguous figures, often with eyes closed or gazes averted, sometimes merging seamlessly with mythical creatures or elements in their surroundings.
Based in Savonlinna, Emma Ainala has held solo exhibitions at Finnish art museums in Hyvinkää, Jyväskylä, and Mikkeli. Her work has also featured in numerous exhibitions across Finland and Europe, notably including the prestigious Spring Exhibition at Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen. Ainala’s paintings are held in esteemed collections such as the Saastamoinen Foundation Collection, the Niemistö Collection, and the Mikkeli Art Museum Collection.
The exhibition is curated by Anna Mustonen from Kiasma.
A Dream in Four Colours
Kiasma Collection Exhibition
February 27, 2026–January 10, 2027
Kiasma’s new collection exhibition unfolds like a dream: fragmentary and wondrous, interweaving fantasy and reality. Meanings shift and shimmer, like in dreams themselves, which transcend everyday comprehension. Visitors encounter a space where the possible and impossible hover side by side, evoking experiences that words cannot fully capture.
The exhibition presents works from the Finnish National Gallery’s collection, which holds over 43,000 works in total. It features around 40 artists, including Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Riikka Anttonen, Milla Aska, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Bruce Nauman, Olli Lyytikäinen, Elina Merenmies, Pakui Hardware, and Cindy Sherman.
The exhibition is curated by Satu Oksanen with Saara Hacklin and Saara Karhunen from Kiasma.
Live performances 2026
The Kiasma Theatre programme for 2026 opens the door to the magical and inexplicable. In dialogue with the collection exhibition, the theatre will present four Finnish premieres: Krispi Fraid by Samuli Niittymäki; Scream Cry Exorcise by Tarleena Laakko, Julia Jäntti and Virpi Nieminen; God=Love by Saana Pohjonen and Henia Nikkilä; and Entanglement by Maria Nurmela and Vesa Loikas.
Alongside the exhibition We Who Remain, the theatre will also spotlight contemporary Sámi performance. The programme includes two audiovisual concerts: Hildá Länsman and Tuomas Norvio during the exhibition’s opening weekend, and Ánnámáret with Bálvvosbáiki in August. The premiere of Biret Haarla-Pieski’s Maincharacter will form part of Kiasma Theatre’s URB festival.
Kiasma Theatre will continue its close collaboration with the DocPoint, Baltic Circle, and Moving in November festivals.
The Kiasma Theatre programme is curated by Jonna Strandberg from Kiasma.
Earworm: Media Art from Kiasma
January 15–December 31, 2026, Oulu City Hall
As part of the Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture programme, Kiasma presents Earworm, a media art exhibition curated from the Finnish National Gallery’s collection. Visitors will experience video works by Mika Taanila, Pipilotti Rist, Raakel Kuukka, Dora Dalila Cheffi, Otto Byström, and Jaakko Pietiläinen, with music and sound resonating as significant narrative elements.
The exhibition is curated by Saara Karhunen from Kiasma. The exhibition will be on display in Oulu City Hall’s exhibition space.
