SÍM

An open international art competition will be held as part of the project to construct an annex to the National Museum of Finland. The purpose of the competition is to solicit ideas for a work of art to be sited in the new annex, whose estimated completion date is 2027. The art competition is being organised by the State Art Commission under the auspices of the Finnish National Gallery and in cooperation with the National Museum of Finland, Senate Properties and the Finnish Heritage Agency.

The competition will comprise two stages. Stage I commences on Thursday, 8 December 2022, and ends on Monday, 3 April 2023. It is an open ideas competition, and the jury will select 4–6 proposals for Stage II from the initial round of submissions. All ideas chosen to continue to Stage II will receive an award of 5,000 euros. The competition process is fully anonymous. It is open to all citizens of the European Union and for non-EU citizens resident in Finland who are not subject to international sanctions.

Stage II of the competition starts on Wednesday, 10 May 2023, and ends on Tuesday, 12 September 2023. The participants in Stage II will be the winners of Stage I, who will develop their ideas further. The winning proposal will be implemented during the construction of the new annex to the National Museum.
The National Museum of Finland is a national cultural history museum, the building of which was the subject of an architectural competition in 1902. The competition winner was architects Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen. Designed in the National Romantic style, the building opened to the public in 1916. An international architectural competition was held in 2019 to find a solution to expand the National Museum’s premises. The winner was the Finnish office JKMM Architects. The new complex comprising the historic main building, the new annex and an open courtyard park open to the public all year round is expected to be completed in 2027.

The annex to the National Museum is an independent building while also being part of the larger whole of the National Museum. Most of the new facilities will be located underground. The overground part of the annex is a low and understated sculptural structure in the courtyard park that respects the existing museum building and establishes a natural relationship with it. The annex improves the National Museum’s overall capacity, connectivity, services and accessibility, creating meeting places and a platform for diverse culture.
The goal of the art competition is to find ideas for an artwork or series of artworks to be installed in the National Museum annex. The work must be site-specific and permanent in nature. It can be sited in the courtyard park, in the interior spaces of the annex, in both, or somewhere in between. The aim is for the work to contribute to the identity of the new annex and to support the coherence of the overall complex of buildings. What matters is the content of the artwork, its high quality and the layers of meaning the work creates in its setting.
A webinar on the competition will be held on Thursday, 15 December 2022, from 13:00–14:45. The webinar will present the competition site and the objectives of the State Art Commission and the National Museum with regard to the competition. A recording of the webinar will be available later on the State Art

Commission’s Vimeo account.
Read more: www.valtiontaideteostoimikunta.fi/Kansallismuseo-taidekilpailu
Live webinar: https://webcasting.fi/kansallisgalleria/I0PJR5ml/
State Art Commission Vimeo account: https://vimeo.com/valtiontaide

The State Art Commission acquires works of art for properties built by Senate Properties, the Prime Minister’s Office, and University Properties of Finland Ltd. The State Art Commission is appointed by the Ministry of Education and Culture and it operates under the auspices of the Finnish National Gallery.

More info:
State Art Commission, Finnish National Gallery
Henri Terho, Chairperson, henri.terho@taike.fi, 0295 330901
Eija Aarnio, Senior Producer, eija.aarnio@kansallisgalleria.fi, 0400 271 477
National Museum of Finland
Elina Anttila, Director General, elina.anttila@kansallismuseo.fi, 0295 33 6131
National Museum of Finland, Operations Manager, Tomi Nikander, Architect, tomi.nikander@museovirasto.fi, tel. 0295 33 6333