Institut Finlandais: Listening to the Forest that Grows (Season II)
Season II of the exhibition Listening to the Forest that Grows (1.12.2022–1.4.2023), a collaboration between Institut finlandais and Katja Hagelstam of Lokal gallery, will continue to showcase a collection of curated artworks, crafts, and design with the addition of the works of five new artists.
This new season explores nature’s cycle that inspires the creative process and personal growth, as well as the details and materials used in each piece of the exhibition. The soothing forms of Sini Villi’s three-dimensional silk thread wall pieces take their form from the harvest field landscapes of her childhood in Northern Finland. Arni Aromaa‘s combination of ceramics and glass works, Magic Ponds, creates an array of intriguing wall sculptures. Bo Haglund’s dreamlike paintings are inspired by the Finnish forests and logging in winter. Eija Koski’s hand-cut organic rye straw mobiles are inspired by the winter celebration traditions of her family home. Leena Keränen creates unique ceramic candleholders with hand-building techniques.
Institut Finlandais: Listening to the Forest that Grows (Season II)
Season II of the exhibition Listening to the Forest that Grows (from 2 December 2022 to 1 April 2023), a collaboration between Institut finlandais and Katja Hagelstam of Lokal gallery, will continue to showcase a collection of curated artworks, crafts, and design with the addition of the works of five new artists.
This new season explores nature’s cycle that inspires the creative process and personal growth, as well as the details and materials used in each piece of the exhibition. The soothing forms of Sini Villi’s three-dimensional silk thread wall pieces take their form from the harvest field landscapes of her childhood in Northern Finland. Arni Aromaa‘s combination of ceramics and glass works, Magic Ponds, creates an array of intriguing wall sculptures. Bo Haglund’s dreamlike paintings are inspired by the Finnish forests and logging in winter. Eija Koski’s hand-cut organic rye straw mobiles are inspired by the winter celebration traditions of her family home. Leena Keränen creates unique ceramic candleholders with hand-building techniques.
Specially commissioned by Institut finlandais, Melissa Sammalvaara’s artwork Tuohi returns to be exhibited on the wall of Café Maa. The exhibition is complemented by a permanent collection showcasing craftsmanship that honors nature across generations designed for the Lokal Kollection in Helsinki by the following artists: Eija Koski, Saija Halko, Nathalie Lautenbacher, Renata Schirm, Yoshimasa Yamada, Alpo Ahokas and Tuohimuori.
Through this new curatorial proposal, Institut finlandais also wishes to slow down its exhibition cycle and inaugurate a new, more organic, flexible, and sustainable way of developing the program.
Listening to the Forest that Grows was inspired by the wish to share Finnish contemporary art and craftsmanship in France, and to support, in a more permanent way, the designers and creators working in Finland. The exhibition takes place in Institut finlandais’s unique space originally designed by Juhani Pallasmaa, entirely renovated by Pekka Littow’s Littow Architects, and decorated by Studio Joanna Laajisto in 2017-2018.
Listening to the Forest that Grows – Season II presents the following 14 artists:
Arni Aromaa
Bo Haglund
Saija Halko
Antrei Hartikainen
Renata Schirm
Leena Keränen
Hanna-Kaisa Korolainen
Eija Koski
Leena Kouhia
Linda Laitinen
Nathalie Lautenbacher
Melissa Sammalvaara
Sini Villi
Yoshimasa Yamada
Explore: Lokal Events
SOMMARSTILLEBEN 2025
15.6.–24.8.2025
This summer, Lokal makes an all-summer-long expedition to Billnäs, an old ironworks village to the West of Helsinki. Bringing beauty in the form of artwork, crafts and handmade homeware into a space which still starkly echoes its unique history, the Sommarstilleben exhibition is a celebration of Lokal’s core values. The still lifes are an ode to the magical, fleeting nature of the Nordic summer. The abundance consists of works in various mediums and materials, in varying scale and subject, by a number of Finnish and Finland-based contemporary artists and artisans.
Institut finlandais: Almost All the Flowers in My Mother’s Garden
Lokal x Almost All the Flowers in My Mother’s Garden marks the return of a collaboration between Lokal Gallery and Institut Finlandais. Discover a new selection of handmade art and design pieces curated in dialogue with Hilla Kurki’s photography exhibition at Institut finlandais 12.4.–2.8.2025.
Bloom 2025 / Open Call
We are delighted to be having our eighth Bloom exhibition, Lokal’s biannual young artists’ exhibition. Bloom has become an established platform for young blossoming creatives to present their works in a curated group exhibition context.
Factory 2: Correspondences
28.11.–31.12.2024, Seoul
The works of five Korean and Finnish artists, who work by hand using different natural materials, correspond as if they are exchanging handwritten letters. It creates a temporary “commune” where diverse elements such as people and objects from here and there, light and colour of time and space converge and leave a lasting impression.