As the year draws to a close, it is time to reflect on the tremendous year at Bioart Society. In 2024, we continued to run and develop our transdisciplinary programme in active collaboration with a plethora of artists, practitioners, organizations, and other actors to create a distinct program of workshops, presentations, networking opportunities, and other various events. Below are more details of the myriad of thrilling things we made into reality in 2024.
Residencies – Finland and Beyond
In 2024, we continued the extraordinary Ars Bioarctica residency programme at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station in Sápmi in collaboration with the University of Helsinki. 2024 also marked the 60th anniversary of the Biological Station. We feel very privileged to have been part of the Station's legacy for our 16-year-long existence.
Overall, 7 artists, practitioners, or groups traveled to the North in 2024. The artists and collectives included Carol Müller, Mateo Mena, Jean Danton Laffert, Alyssa Coffin, Sonjis Laine, and the working group, Carbon Synthesis (consisting of Tracy Hill, Sarah Robinson, and Donna Franklin) and Ellen Bjerborn. You can read more about their experiences on the Ars Bioarctica blog on our website.
In addition to regular Ars Bioarctica residencies, we continued facilitating The North Escaping and Rewilding Cultures residencies at Kilpisjärvi Biological Station. Christine Hvidt, Hannah Wiker Wikström, and the group consisting of Neal Cahoon, Hilde Methi, Erik Fallgren, Espen Sommer Eide, and Anne Lindgaard Møller had their The North Escaping residencies during spring and summer, and Lauri Linna traveled for his Rewilding Cultures residency in September to explore the winds of North. As this year marks the end of The North Escaping project, we will not continue these residencies in 2025, but will still organize one Rewilding Cultures residency in 2025.
During 2024, we also facilitated short-term micro residencies in our space in Kalasatama for our members. Claudio Filho spent his time researching our extensive library, Genietta Varsi, and her working group prepared a mini-exhibition, Maria Ångerman recorded material for a new video work, Erich Berger used his time in residency to prepare and test for an upcoming exhibition and Pia Lindman hosted listening sessions in the space.
Jean Danton Laffert in Ars Bioarctica residency in March 2024
In addition to the residencies taking place at Sápmi and Helsinki, we continued with the Tokyo Art & Science Research Residency programme, which we co-facilitate with the Finnish Institute in Tokyo and BioClub Tokyo. Lau Kaker was selected via an open call and they spent a month in Japan researching traditional Japanese Indigo dyeing techniques.
On top of residencies, we also made other forms of mobility possible via the Rewilding Cultures Mobility Conversation. With this open call, the Rewilding Cultures partner associations wanted to initiate a conversation on cultural exchange by offering mobility grants as well as backing work and experiments that contribute to the rethinking of mobility and cultural exchange in novel ways. Visnja Kisnic and Goran Tomka were selected as Bioart Society’s grant receivers. They commenced their mobility in September 2025 and traveled with an electric car from Montenegro to Finland, visiting different sites focusing on environmental sustainability and culture on their way.
Buzzing with activity – workshops, exhibitions, events and projects
In addition to residencies, we organized and hosted a multitude of different events, including workshops, presentations, discussions, exhibitions, breakfasts, reading circles, and a book launch.
Following the opening in December 2023, Aaro Murphy's Fickle (Gritty) Memory exhibition continued in SOLU Space until the end of January 2024. Later in Spring, we facilitated the MicroMatters microscopy workshop with Katri Naukkarinen, joined forces with the Museum of Finnish Architecture where Lucy Davis presented her project Crocodile Seeds, and facilitated a two-week.long workshop at Biofilia in cooperation with the Aalto University Department of Art & Media, hosted by Laura Beloff. We finished our spring with a bang, by hosting the deCYPher lab hybrid forum at Aalto Design Factory in June.
We started the Autumn with Night of the Arts, during which Kaajal Modi – in collaboration with Riina Hannula and Panu Räisänen – hosted M/others M*lk workshop. Later in Autumn, Bioart Society organized the book launch for Feral Labs Node Book #2: Feralities and hosted Lotta Petronella’s Songs from the Wreck / Själö Poeisis performance. The year was finished with The North Escaping: Grasping Transformations exhibition, which exhibited the works-in-progress by the artists and curators who had had their The North Escaping residencies at Kilpisjärvi in 2024.
From left to right: The North Escaping: Grasping Transformations exhibition opening, MicroMatters workshop and Ways of seeing workshop at Biofilia
In 2024, we continued with SOLU Dialogues, SOLU breakfast, and Reading Matter concepts. Throughout the year, we facilitated 4 SOLU Dialogues events, – with Kaajal Modi, The Nuclear Cultures Research Group, Erich Berger, and Madeleine Collie / Follow the Plants –, hosted 10 breakfast gatherings and 5 Reading Matters groups, from which two with guest hosts Bartaku and Anastasia (A) Alevtin (Khodyreva).
We were also happy to offer SOLU Space and resources to others during 2024 through our members and peer programme which brought new buzz for Panimokatu. Different activities were organized by Paula Kramer, Lorenzo Li Greci, Tuula Jyske, Otso Kauniskangas, Naomi Moriyama, Noora Sandgren, Jonatan Snapir, Jessica Smith, Sasa Tkalcan, Julia Varis, Jutta Varis, Ninni Westerholm, Taru Elfving, Kiila ry, Sumud ry, UrbanApa, Henrika Ylirisku, and Tomi Slotte Dufva.
In 2024, we concluded some projects while others continued from previous years. We feel privileged to keep attracting international collaboration projects, with new and old partners alike.
The concluded multi-year projects include the Creative Europe collaboration project Restorative Practices (2022–2024) and the Nordic-Baltic programme The North Escaping (2022–2024), generously supported by The Nordic Culture Point. Projects that continue into 2025 include the Creative Europe collaboration project Rewilding Cultures (2022–2026), Erasmus+ project CLUVEX (Climate University for Virtual Exchanges) (2023–2026) and Horizon Europe project deCYPher (2023–2027).
New Members and Winds of Change
We would be nothing without our members and feel very privileged to act as an incubator for networking, learning, and growing in the vast field of art and science.
We are happy to have welcomed 35 new members to the Bioart Society in 2024. The new members include: Sybille Neumeyer, Elizabeth McTernan, David Flood, Oona Oikkonen, Neal Cahoon, Natarsha Bates, Jill Sorensen, Carol Müller, Jean Danton, Anastasia Khodyreva, Joss Allen, Espen Sommer Eide, Claudio Filho, Hilde Methi, Aaro Murphy, Santtu Laine, Sonjis Laine, Alicja Staniszewska, Tessa Zettel, Maria Ångerman, Joonas Ahtikallio, Ellen Bjerborn, Sonja Repetti, Michal Czinege and Eliisa Suvanto. The Bioart Society currently has over 150 members from Finland and beyond. You can find the complete list of our members on our website.
During 2024, Bioart Society’s staff went through some reconfiguration and in November we were very happy to welcome Eliisa Suvanto as the new Managing Director. We want to warmly thank our former producer, Lisa Kalkowski, and the previous Managing Director, Piritta Puhto, for working with us in 2024. Thank you also to Anna Karima Wane and Zina Marpegan who had their internships with us in spring 2024.
Thank yous
Throughout the year our activities were funded by grants from Arts Promotion Centre Finland; City of Helsinki; European Union: Creative Europe, Horizon and Erasmus+ programmes; Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation; the Nordic Culture Fund; Nordic Culture Point; Ministry of Education and Culture; and the Finnish institute in Japan. We want to sincerely thank all of our marvelous supporters for making our transdisciplinary and ambitious programme possible this year. We also want to thank all other supporters, collaborators, partners, and audiences for a wonderful year. We look forward to seeing you in 2025!