IHME Helsinki as a research target in the EcoConjunctions project

IHME Helsinki is participating in the EcoConjunctions project funded by the Academy of Finland to study the relationship between contemporary art, the natural sciences, sustainable development, and civil society from an ecocritical perspective. The project, led by Minna Valjakka, PhD, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Helsinki, studies contemporary-art practitioners that combine art and science in Finland, Singapore, Indonesia and Japan.

Art and science projects around the world

The project aims to carry forward and decolonise current Western-centric research by developing new approaches. Our aim is to explore the local and international trajectories of art-science projects, their knowledge-production strategies, and their potential societal impact,

says Valjakka. The project approaches its research targets from the perspectives of art history, art sociology and civil society studies.

In Finland, besides IHME Helsinki, the University of Helsinki’s Hyytiälä Forest Station and Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research’s Climate Whirl Arts Programme and Periferia art exhibition are part of the project. The project’s international partners include individual researchers, research centres, universities, NGOs, and contemporary-art organisations, such as the Cemeti Institute for Art and Society and Lifepatch in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

IHME Helsinki as a research target

IHME Helsinki Commissions, made with international artists and combining art and science, will be one focus of the project’s research.

IHME Helsinki’s annual works in public space offer insights and hope in the environmental crisis by engaging people, and suggesting ways of working that promote the cultural change needed in the crisis. A good example of this is IHME Helsinki Commission 2024, in which the Cooking Sections artist duo challenged everyone to develop bread recipes that promote the wellbeing of the soil, the sea, and people. It is great that the artworks and activities of our collaborating artists will be explored in greater depth as part of research that aims to open up new avenues for interdisciplinary research,

says Paula Toppila, Executive Director of IHME Helsinki.

This year’s IHME Helsinki Commission by Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadyrova will take place in the Voimala Museum in Vanhankaupunginkoski, Helsinki, in August-September 2025. Kadyrova is interested in bodies of water and energy infrastructures, through which she explores the consequences of both ‘progress’ and conflict in life-support systems. The information released by IHME Helsinki Commissions and produced at the events accompanying them, as well as feedback from the public and the communications material created by IHME Helsinki, form part of the research material.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version) Revised by MG