IMAGINARIUM (2016)

IMAGINARIUM: Spirit of Kuva (Kuvan Henki)

Ailan Art Gallery, Helsinki
30 April – 22 May 2016

Artists: Dylan Arnold, Mia Ash (Mirza Cizmic), Kemal Can, Petteri Cederberg, Migle Duncikaite, Miikka Halonen, Sami Korkiakoski, Atro Linnavirta, Kalle Mustonen, Anita Naukkarinen, Tamara Piilola, Riikka Salminen, Joonas Siren, Kim Somervuori, Astrid Strömberg

Curator: Ville Laaksonen (Praxis Programme, Academy of Fine Arts / Uniarts Helsinki)

Project description:

Imaginarium: Spirit of Kuva was a group exhibition featuring students and alumni from the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of the Arts Helsinki (KuvA). Organized as an invitational project by Ailan Art Gallery, the exhibition examined what academic art means today — not as an institutional boundary, but as a process of imagination, dialogue, and risk.

The participating students formed the initial group, chosen not through formal criteria but through an intangible sense of shared energy and atmosphere — a reflection of the unique spirit that defines KuvA. To complement this collective, the curator invited alumni whose artistic practices extend the academy’s legacy into diverse contemporary contexts.

Imaginarium invited both artists and audiences to reflect on the tension between tradition and experimentation, failure and discovery, and the necessity of imagination in transcending convention. Within the academy’s framework, art becomes a site of transformation — a process through which boundaries are tested, mistakes become methods, and the future of art begins to take shape.

The meeting of students and graduates in a single exhibition created a dialogue across generations, reflecting on the role of the Academy of Fine Arts within the broader field of Finnish contemporary art. The exhibition stood as both a bridge from academic life to artistic practice and a reminder of the challenge inherent in meaningful art-making: to pause, reflect, and continue forward.