VENICE — On 17 April, Finnish Minister of Science and Culture Sari Multala and Finnish ambassador to Italy Matti Lassila visited the Biennale's Finnish exhibition. 

 The Venice Biennale is the oldest contemporary art biennial in the world. Every two years it brings together exhibitions from different countries in the Giardini della Biennale park. This year's exhibit, entitled Stranieri Ovunque, or Foreigners Everywhere, was curated by Adriano Pedrosa and is open from Saturday 20 April to Sunday 24 November 2024. The pre-opening takes place on 17, 18 and 19 April. Awards and inauguration ceremony will take place on 20 April 2024.

 “Finnish artists have taken part in the Venice Biennale since its conception,” said Minister Multala. “The importance of the Venice Biennale on contemporary European art and on Finnish artists and art professionals cannot be underestimated. In these times when there are so many serious conflicts in the world, art and culture, together with international cooperation and the exchange of ideas, play an increasingly important role.”

 Produced by Frame Conceptual Art, the Finnish pavilion’s exhibition, called ‘the pleasures we choose,’ is a collaboration between curators Yvonne Billimore and Jussi Koitela and artists Pia Lindman, Vidha Saumya, Jenni-Juulia Wallinheimo-Heimonen, and designer Kaisa Sööt. 

 Blurring the lines between art, architecture and social criticism, the Finnish Pavilion brings together three artists for whom art, life and activism are intertwined. Embedded as a collective project, The Pleasures We Choose has evolved through the exchange of shared and individual experiences to create areas of different “occupations” where visitors are encouraged to re-evaluate and (re)consider societal expectations. 

 The works of Lindman, Saumya, and Wallinheimo-Heimonen are deeply informed by their embodied experiences of structural, environmental, and social imbalances. Articulated through a wide range of materials and processes – including drawing, embroidery, sculpture and healing – their works celebrate personal pleasure as a powerful means of reinventing the world as we know it. 

 Following mercury poisoning, artist Lindman experiences increased nervous system sensitivity and an awareness of microsignals within her body. She translates these signals into visual images, melodies, words and colors and incorporates them into works of art that allow her to explore the nuances of different environments and social situations. 

 Often engaging with the intricate relationship between human presence and the environment, Saumya's work challenges the norms of aesthetics, gender, academia, and the nation-state. In his work, viewers encounter an interplay between desire, intimacy and (home)land, counterbalanced by heteronormative demands of utility, time and (dis)placement. 

 Wallinheimo-Heimonen's work brings to light the variety of forms of discrimination and violence to which people with disabilities are subjected. Her intricate realities celebrate a world in which a diversity of human bodies have won the right to choose a pleasant life over mere existence.

 “The pleasures we choose reject the exceptionalism of art and the myth that the artist is separate from the world, on the contrary they are precisely the experiences that draw attention to coexistence – standing in line, taking to the streets, receiving medical care, breathing the same toxic air that pushes us to give life to new collective futures,” explain the curators Billimore and Koitela.

 Presented in Finland's Aalto Pavilion, the artists' works are connected conceptually and materially through architectural interventions designed by Sööt. By rethinking the pavilion and the kinds of art, bodies and experiences it can support, the exhibition introduces an “access architecture” that considers access and bodily needs across registers, while encouraging multi-sensory experiences. 

 “It was wonderful to witness the process of collaboration and joy between artists and curators,” says Raija Koli, director of Frame and commissioner of the exhibition. “We are happy to share this significant project with the public in the exhibition.” The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue poublished by K. Verlag.