Nada Prlja in conversation with Kati Kivinen and Blanca de la Torre, artistic directors of the 3rd Helsinki Biennial

The Large Glass, issue 37/38 engages in a series of interviews with recognised directors, artistic directors and curators working on different Biennial in 2025 – the 3rd Helsinki Biennial, 41st EVA International, 36th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, 13th Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA), 13th Momentum Biennial, 6th Art Encounters Biennial, and Sharjah Biennial 16. Here you can read an interview with Kati Kivinen, Head of Exhibitions at HAM Helsinki Art Museum, and Blanca de la Torre, Director of IVAM – Institut Valencià d’Art Modern—both artistic directors of the 3rd Helsinki Biennial. The interview was conducted by the internationaly renown Macedonian artist, Nada Prlja, before the opening of the Biennial.

NADA PRLJA _ Vallisaari Island’s last inhabitants left in 1996 (1), leaving the island undisturbed by human habitation for decades. On the one hand, the island’s thriving, unspoiled nature is populated by a range of grazing animals, unspoiled lakes, overgrown vegetation and other fascinating non-human natural kingdoms – while on the other hand, the history of human activity is a fruitful playground for, at least, the imagination of “keyboard warriors.” This island’s history recounts tales of Russian rule in the 19th century, including fortifications, batteries, the 1854 bombardment of the island, and the mutineers’ takeover in 1906. Moreover, in the 1950s, a group of adventurous children, citizens of the island, searched for the mouths of army tunnels and dug up forbidden explosives. This island is only a 20-minute boat ride from Helsinki, yet it feels like a story read aloud from a work of fiction for children.

With all this in mind, one of the biennial’s key principles is the inclusion of site-specific commissioned works for each edition, where art engages in a dialogue with the history of Vallisaari Island and its thriving nature.(2) It was clear from the outset of your concept, announced in June 2024, that you are aiming to oppose the human-centric perspective and to “focus on non-human subjects.”(3) This is not so surprising, considering the current state of Vallisaari island.

Could you explain why non-human subjects are at the centre of your focus?

KATI KIVINEN & BLANCA DE LA TORRE _ The third Helsinki Biennial seeks to shake us out of anthropocentrism in order to better understand the delicate and severely imbalanced relationship between humankind and nature. With this goal in mind, we have placed various non-human actors—plants, animals, fungi, elements and minerals—at the centre of our curatorial work. We believe that by shifting the focus away from humanity alone, we can make space for and gain understanding of others, while also striving to find more diverse ways of sensing and conveying knowledge about the world.

The exhibition also aims to highlight how, in the midst of the ongoing climate and environmental crisis, we need a new praxis that more broadly considers the impact of anthro- pogenic activity on planetary well-being. The artists focus their microscopic observations on the natural surroundings, while also creating interpretations that draft possible futures. This is where the power of art is at its best—in its ability to generate new agencies while simultaneously creating new realities.

N P _ The very concept of distancing oneself from a human-centric perspective is liberating. There is something positive and invigorating about focusing on non-human subjects. Which exhibitions or artworks served as your guiding inspiration while conceptually developing HB 2025?

K & B _ I am not sure if it was any specific exhibition or any particular artwork, but rather a practice that several artists that we have invited to participate in the third edition of the biennial have already been conducting for some time. And then, of course, a huge pile of books and texts by various writers and thinkers whose ideas have supported the development of our curatorial framework.

Likewise, the state of the planet is also one of the key factors behind the chosen curatorial framework, with the need to find new ways to address the current situation and to avoid losing hope and optimism in the project, which seldom leads towards new thinking and broadening perspectives. Therefore, our curatorial approach has been motivated by the search, over many years, for more responsible ways to address the ecological crisis, as well as the intention to take all our experiences one step further and propose some differential lines that mark a paradigm shift in the “biennial” model.

N P _ Blanca, as one of the leading curators dealing with issues of sustainability, you have developed concrete guidelines to reduce the ecological footprint of your past projects, such as the 15th International Cuenca Biennial in Ecuador, “Overview Effect” at the MoCAB Museum in Belgrade, Serbia, and “Con los pies en la T(t)ierra” at CAAM, Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, to name a few. What are your specific ideas regarding sustainability and the Helsinki Biennial 2025?

Blanca de la Torre and Kati Kivinen, Head Curators of Helsinki Biennial 2025 Photo: Ilkka Saastamoinen/HAM/Helsinki Biennial

B _ For so many years, my professional goal has focused on how curatorship cannot work only at the discursive level, but also entails the development of situated cultural practices that consider the traceability of the materials with which we produce, as well as the processes, the collab- orators, the workers and all the other people involved and of course, in general, the (environmental, social, cultural) life cycle of the projects and climate justice as a backdrop.

An approach to “sustainable curating” implies developing projects that speak of ecology in content, form, and attitude. Showing environmental artistic practices that go hand-in-hand with sustainability discourses is a way to stimulate collective action, to rethink our cultural practices, and to encourage environmental empowerment. That is the line that I am developing further together with Kati and the whole team.

N P _ Kati, as one of the most prolific European curators and the Head of Exhibitions at HAM Helsinki Art Museum, how do you view your role as head of exhibitions in relation to being a co-curator of a biennial? Where do these roles overlap, and how do they differ? Could you please reflect on the public art aspect of the works for the biennial, and the idea of a growing collection of commissioned public art works on the island?

K _ That is a good question and not an easy one to answer. These roles overlap in many ways, in a good but also in a challenging way. The biggest challenge is of course time, since both positions demand a lot of it. But at the same time, one role supports the other, and I can be Blanca’s guide to the institution with which she has engaged for a few years, in order to work with us. As the Head of Exhibitions, my work comprises not only the development of the curatorial program for the museum with my team of curators, but also a significant amount of administrative work. Whereas in the biennial project, I have the freedom to concentrate more on the content together with Blanca, as we have a superb production team working with us.

Because HAM is a major player as a producer of new public art within the city of Helsinki, we also wish to find synergies between the biennial project and new commissions for public art. There are many challenges coming our way, mostly related to challenges in schedules—the public art commission projects tend to be quite long procedures, often lasting several years, whereas in the biennial project we are tied to the bi-yearly production schedule. But sometimes, it works out perfectly and for next year we already have two new public art commissions which will premiere in the Helsinki Biennial. After that, we intend to find a new location in the city of Helsinki.

N P _ Blanca writes: “It is not a matter of choice; [sustainability] is the only possible way.”(4) This aligns with the Helsinki City Strategy 2021–2025, which states that “the Helsinki Biennial (…) has been committed from the beginning to produce art in a sustainable manner.”(5) Sustainability, as outlined in the Helsinki City Strategy, could be understood as a means or method of producing the artworks of which the HB 2025 will consist. Will sustainability be integrated into the ideas presented by the artists and reflected in the communication of the artworks to the visitors, or will it be framed solely within the production process of the artworks (for example, ensuring that works are not shipped via DHL, or that their production avoids the use of non-degradable materials)? In other words, is sustainability your conceptual framework or a means of production of the artworks, or both?

K _ Sustainability does not stop at the conceptual frame- work of the exhibition, but it extends all the way to the production at all the various levels. For this we have also created a decalogue for a sustainable situated biennial, which clarifies our ethos behind making the exhibition, but also serves as a guideline to all involved in the project— curators, artists, production team and collaborators—on how we should estimate all the choices in the project.

B _ Exactly. “Sustainability” is not a theme or a concept, in the same way as “feminism” cannot be just a subject. It must be embedded structurally, in every institution, every museum, every project, every event and every decision we take. That’s why we need a systemic change so as to be able to face the ecological emergency.

1 “History,” Vallisaari, National Parks of Finland, accessed October 01, 2024, www.natio- nalparks.fi/vallisaarihistory.

2 “Sustainability,” Helsinki Biennial, accessed October 01, 2024, helsinkibiennaali.fi/en/ sustainability/.

3 “In Helsinki Biennial 2025, the Curators Focus on Non-Human Subjects,” Helsinki Biennial, accessed October 01, 2024, helsinkibiennaali. fi/en/story/in-helsinki-bien- nial-2025-the-curators-fo- cus-on-non-human-subjects/.

4 “Blanca De La Torre,” Blanca De La Torre, accessed October 01, 2024, blancadelatorre.net.

5 “Sustainability,” Helsinki Biennial, accessed October 01, 2024, helsinkibiennaali.fi/en/ sustainability/.

The full interviews can be read in the printed copy of The Large Glass, issue 37/38 available in the MoCA-Skopje shop or to be ordered on info@msu.mk. 3rd Helsinki Biennial from 8 June to 21 September 2025.