The Guggenheim has selected the design for its proposed Helsinki location, a series of interlocking pavilions unified by a single tower, designed by Moreau Kusunoki Architectes. “Our approach was to try to make a building that is closely linked with the city, with the way people use it,” says architect Nicolas Moreau, who runs the firm with his wife Hiroko Kusunoki. (more…)
The fully realized design proposals for the Guggenheim Helsinki are set to be unveiled at the Kunsthalle Helsinki today, marking the next step in the museum’s proposed expansion to Finland. “We hope this exhibition and its programs will inspire the Finnish public to engage with the possibilities of a Guggenheim museum in Helsinki, and to think about the potential of a prominent site on their waterfront,” says Guggenheim Director Richard Armstrong. (more…)
The Guggenheim has released a list of finalists in the competition to design the prospective new Guggenheim in Helsinki, Finland. The final six selections include a variety of designs, including repurposed buildings and a series of pavilion-style structures linked through an interconnected walkway. The design contest “opens extraordinary possibilities for a Guggenheim in Helsinki and asks us to imagine what a museum of the future can be,” according to director Richard Armstrong. (more…)
W Magazine takes a look at the remote art colony and sculpture park established by collectors Anita and Poju Zabludowicz in the Gulf of Finland. “They really support artists before they break through,” says curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, codirector of London’s Serpentine Galleries. “It’s a form of patronage.” (more…)
The Guardian notes the ongoing backlash in Helsinki against the Guggenheim’s proposed expansion, as many doubt the actual benefits a Guggenheim branch may offer the Finnish capital. “I’m not paying my taxes to be handed over to an American corporation to do with what they want,” says one interviewee. “If we’re spending that kind of money, it should be on our own national museum, not another outpost of a global company.” (more…)
Ville Andersson, Reflection, All images courtesy RARE Gallery
Now through August 7, Rare Gallery is presenting Fin(n)ish: Fresh contemporary art from Finland. This group exhibition features work from six emerging Finnish artists—Ville Andersson, Hanna Kanto, Katri Mononen, Aleksi Tammi, Timo Vaittinen, and Ea Vasko. The work presented here is stylistically wide reaching and employs a variety of mediums and techniques, speaking to the vitality of the Finnish art world.
The costs and logistics of the Guggenheim’s Helsinki expansion plans are causing a backlash against the museum in the Finnish capital, the New York Times reports. “I felt some defensiveness and some very developed hostility to us, a fear which I was empathetic toward,” says Guggenheim director Richard Armstrong, “that the distinct local character of Helsinki would somehow be amalgamated into some sort of gigantic industrial apparatus.” (more…)
The plans seem to be moving forward for the Helsinki branch of the Guggenheim Museum, as the institution is reportedly launching an open competition to design the new space, co-organized with the Finnish Association of Architects. (more…)
The Guggenheim’s proposed outpost in the Finnish city of Helsinki seems to moving forward, with the museum posting an international call for architectural proposals following the city’s agreement to set aside a parcel of land on the city’s South Harbor waterfront. The competition “will provide an opportunity to deepen public discussion surrounding the proposed museum,” the institution said in a statement. “We also believe it will bring Helsinki the heightened level of international attention the city deserves as a vibrant cultural center.’’ (more…)
Guggenheim Director Richard Armstrong and his colleagues have returned to the Finnish city of Helsinki, in an attempt to revive talks over the possibility of a Guggenheim Museum there. Meeting with Finnish officials, the group of representatives are seeking what would be the Museum’s northernmost outpost in continental Europe. “Topics that were mentioned during our discussion were the exclusion of the Helsinki Art Museum from the proposal, the possible sites, and funding,” says Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen. (more…)
