Venice Biennale 2024

The pleasures we choose is a multifaceted collaboration by artists Pia Lindman, Vidha Saumya, Jenni-Juulia Wallinheimo-Heimonen, curators Yvonne Billimore and Jussi Koitela, and architectural designer Kaisa Sööt. Commissioned and produced by Frame Contemporary Art Finland, it premieres at the Pavilion of Finland at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

Blurring the boundaries between art, architecture, and social commentary, the Pavilion of Finland brings together three artists for whom art, life, and activism are intertwined. Lindman, Saumya and Wallinheimo-Heimonen’s practices are acutely informed by their embodied experiences of structural, environmental and social imbalances. Articulated through a wide range of materials and processes – including drawing, needlework, sculpture and healing – their works celebrate the pleasure of the personal as a powerful means of reimagining the world as we know it.

The main supporter of The pleasures we choose is the Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland. Other supporters include the Kone Foundation, The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, AVEK The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture, The Church Media Foundation, Fin­nish Fe­de­ra­tion of the Vi­sual­ly Im­pai­red and the Embassy of Finland in Rome.

Venice Biennale

Venice Biennale, founded in 1895 and held biannually, is the oldest and most prestigious international forums for presenting contemporary art. Commissioning and producing the exhibition for the Aalto Pavilion of Finland, designed by architect Alvar Aalto in 1956, is Frame’s most extensive international project. Finland participates in two pavilions – the national Aalto Pavilion and the Nordic Pavilion – that are both located in the historical biennale park, Giardini di Castello.

Finland in Venice

The exhibition in the Pavilion of Finland is commissioned and produced by Frame Contemporary Art Finland. Frame has a varying practice for selecting artists featured at the Venice Biennale. For the 2019 and 2017 biennials, Frame invited proposals in open calls. For the 2022 biennial, Frame invited the artist based on previous open calls. Frame’s Head of Programme curated the exhibition in 2015 and 2024.

The Pavilion of Finland exhibition for the 2026 Venice Biennale will be selected through an Open Call organised in the summer of 2024. The selection will be announced early 2025.