Anna Jensen and Eliisa Suvanto ⎜Finnish cultural foundation (Finland)

Bio

Anna Jensen and Eliisa Suvanto are pioneers of collective, site-specific and non-institutional contemporary art in Finland. Together, the curatorial duo have carried out various projects addressing issues of resources, social structures, accessibility and exhibiting practices. Suvanto and Jensen are founding and active members of Porin kulttuurisäätö collective, motivated by research, collective work, already existing resources, and activism. Porin kulttuurisäätö has since 2013 focused on site-specific exhibitions, commissioning new artworks and established its own nomadic biennale taking place in changing locations. Recent projects include Hill of Spirits (2024) in Mustarinda, exploring the possibilities of the Vaara-Kainuu Art National Park initiative, as well as Polygala Biennale – Plants, Animals and Things In-Between (2024) at the Natural History Museum in Helsinki, offering a place to imagine other ways of being and, on the other hand, creating. new perspectives on what is already known.

Project

“During our 3-month residency, we mainly focused on conducting site-specific research. We focused on the Kulgu area (Narva Venice) where we are planning our upcoming project in 2026, and visited many nearby places such as the Blue Lagoon, Narva-Jõesuu and Sillamäe. Our research in Narva involved walking around the city and its various neighbourhoods, meeting people, potential collaborators, and reading and writing. The emphasis of our future project is on the public programme and participatory audience work. During the residency, we met local artists and visited their studios, as well as held talks and workshops. One particularly interesting and rewarding experience was a workshop with local high school students. This workshop was an extension of our project, ‘Cotyledon’, which introduces children and young people to public art to increase their sense of ownership of their living environment. The project’s aim is to plan and design monuments that their creators can nurture throughout their lives. This ongoing project serves as a framework and a place of experimentation, as well as a reference point for mapping out local experiences, especially those of young people. In Narva, we explored the concept of public art with the students. Afterwards, they worked in small groups to create and present ideas for new public artworks in the city. The results were amazing, and we enjoyed the process. As our future project develops, we are hoping to combine some of these aspects to it.”