Venice Biennale 2026

Marking its 70th Anniversary, Pavilion of Finland will present Jenna Sutela‘s exhibition Aeolian Suite at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. The exhibition is curated by Stefanie Hessler,

Aeolian Suite unfolds as a multisensory environment, transforming the pavilion into a windscape of sound and movement. The artwork is composed using meteorological data, musical instruments (such as a clothesline, wind machines, and a children’s woodwinds orchestra), and the winds from Venice, Helsinki, and beyond.

Aeolian Suite explores the ambivalence of the wind—an atmospheric presence that is intangible and unpredictable. Wind transcends earthbound logic while simultaneously being entangled in our lives and a mirror to our planetary impact. It acts as a source of true randomness for computation, divination, and music, and as a carrier of particles, microbes, seeds, and messages. 

In this elemental drama set in the Pavilion of Finland, the five Venetian winds—Tramontana, two different Boras, Scirocco, and Garbin—become central protagonists, singing the weather while acting as guides for listening. By personifying the atmospheric forces that shape Venice and the increasingly volatile global climate, the work addresses environmental questions from the mundane to the existential.

“Against the logic of noise cancellation and weather prediction, Aeolian Suite embraces the wind’s unpredictability and its fully relational being,” said Jenna Sutela. “We can only hear wind as it blows into, out of, or against things like trees, alleys, flutes, wings, or the Merihaansilta bridge in Helsinki. To listen to the wind – to let it take over the microphone, the voice, the recording – is a way of staying porous to the world, of recognizing that intelligence moves in more directions than we can see.”

Curator Stefanie Hessler added, “The pavilion whisks us into an expanded conversation with the atmosphere – one that moves between scientific measurement and poetic intuition, between control and surrender. Sutela sensitizes us to forces that exceed human scale while simultaneously summoning us to sound the whispers and roars of the winds with our full sensorium, wit, and languages beyond those known to us as of yet.”

The exhibition at Finland’s Aalto Pavilion is commissioned and produced by Frame Contemporary Art Finland. Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture is the main partner of the exhibition. The Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture is the main supporter of the exhibition. Other supporters include Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, Genelec, Kvadrat, Schering Stiftung, Saastamoinen Foundation, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finnish Embassy in Rome, and Pavilion of Finland Patrons. Event partners include Finnland-Institut in Berlin, TBA21–Academy’s Ocean Space, and Swiss Institute (SI) New York.

Venice Art Biennale

The Venice Biennale, founded in 1895 and held biannually, is one of the most important international forums for presenting contemporary art. In 2024, the Biennale hosted 86 National Participations in addition to the main exhibition. The Biennale received over 700,000 visitors. Finland is one of the 29 countries with a national pavilion in the historical Giardini Biennale Park. Additionally, Finland participates in the Nordic Pavilion together with Norway and Sweden. In 2026, the Nordic Pavilion exhibition is commissioned by Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art.

Frame Contemporary Art Finland has acted as the commissioner of the Aalto Pavilion of Finland since 2013. Information about the past editions can be found here. As the commissioner, Frame appoints the artist and the curator for the Pavilion based on an open call, or by invitation. The selection for the 2026 Biennale was based on an open call organised in summer 2024.