Last week we had the privilege to welcome Yvonne Billimore as the new Artistic Director of the Bioart Society.

“I am over the moon to be joining the team and to have the opportunity to learn from and with the team, membership and wider network. Representing bioart as a porous and expanding field of inquiry and practice, Bioart Society has long inspired and informed my practice. I’m honoured to take on this role and look forward to shaping the artistic programme in collaboration and correspondence with others”, Yvonne comments her new position.

Since moving to Helsinki in 2018, Yvonne has been a friend of the Society and has on occasion collaborated with Bioart Society, for example, through her role as the Associate Curator at Frame and as a guest curator for Maija Annikki Savolainen’s exhibition /d a t a c e n t r e at SOLU in 2021. Yvonne has over ten years’ experience working in the arts as a curator, producer and manager, both in Helsinki and Scotland. Previously they have worked as the Co-Artistic Director at the ATLAS Arts, Programme Manager at the Scottish Sculpture Workshops and as an Associate Curator at the Frame Contemporary Art Finland.

Yvonne’s knowledge and thinking is rooted in practices of making, sharing, and ways of coming together through art, and is underpinned by a deep commitment to ecological and social justice. Like Bioart Society, Yvonne believe’s in the importance of artistic work that creates space for critical dialogue, communal knowledge production, and community building across disciplines and boundaries. At the Bioart Society, as with her previous projects, she is interested in and excited to be working with ecologies of knowledges, plurality and polyvocal programmes.

As Yvonne joins the Bioart Society team, our long-term senior producer Piritta Puhto starts as the new Managing Director of the Bioart Society. Piritta has worked with the Bioart Society since 2015. She has worked in the cultural field for over 20 years, not only with visual arts but also with contemporary theatre, holding many positions in different organisations as well as working as an independent producer. She has been part of the growth of Bioart Society and she herself has grown with it. Piritta could not be happier to continue the work in her new position as the Managing Director, together with all the members, partners and friends we have made over the years.

Photo of Yvonne Billimore: Ross Fraser McLean / StudioRoRo