The Same Sea

Mutual dependence is the main theme of the Helsinki Biennial 2021, and the exhibits will concentrate on how we are on the cusp of enormous changes.

- Aruna Rathod

The inaugural Helsinki Biennial 2021, ‘The Same Sea’, will be held on the Helsinki Archipelago, Vallisaari island, from 12 June to 26 September 2021. The Helsinki Biennial aims to offer an alternative framework for biennials in a post-pandemic world. The Biennial was to be held last year on the same dates but was postponed because of the exceptional circumstances across the globe due to the pandemic.

The Biennial will present 40 international artists or groups of artists from both Finland and around the world. The artists have been invited to come to Vallisaari island and create new site-specific and temporary artworks or to exhibit existing artworks that will engage in a dialogue with the island.

There are four themes and approaches related to Vallisaari island: relationship to nature, boundaries and identities, time and change, and empathy and community.

Formerly in military use, Vallisaari is an uninhabited island, just a 15-minute ferry ride from the city centre. Rooted in its maritime location, the Helsinki Biennial marries art with natures’ elements, asserting the importance of an exhibition’s context and environment as well as its wellbeing properties. Whilst some artworks are positioned along the cobbled, outdoor trail - enabling unrestricted viewing conditions, other installations bring to life individual historical buildings and gunpowder cellars across the island - allowing the flow of visitors to be carefully measured.

Interconnectedness