The reformed Pori Art Museum reopens – monumental music and classics of modernism

Monumental music

The 2025 exhibition program will open with the genre-bending and boundary-braking experimental rock band Circle and their sculptural and sound-based installation Point (Piste). Working in the space between avant-garde sound art and rock music genres, Circle is known for its repetitively monumental and sculptural music, as well as trance-like performative live shows. Commissioned by the Pori Art Museum for its main gallery, the piece reinterprets Circle’s artistic ethos for a spatial exhibition environment. The soundscape composed for the work, the geometric shapes of the sculptures, and the participatory activities establish a space for interaction that blurs the boundaries between art, life, creativity, and spectatorship.

Circle, a Pori-based phenomenon, will play in the Pori Art Museum during the “housewarming” event on November 16th 2024, offering a taste of the exhibition to come and celebrating the newly renovated museum building. More information and tickets available at the museum’s webpage.

The Classics of modernism

The Pori Art Museum is founded on the life’s work of Professor Maire Gullichsen (1907–1990) and the art collection of a foundation bearing her name. Consisting mainly of modern Finnish art, the collection now has a dedicated exhibition space in the Wing annex. The exhibition Maire Gullichsen and the Turning Points of Modernism will recontextualise iconic works from the collection by juxtaposing them with less frequently exhibited pieces. The reductive style of Helene Schjerfbeck, the colourful paintings of Magnus Enckell and Ellen Thesleff, the abstract still lifes of Sam Vanni, and the constructivist works of Lars-Gunnar Nordström are all milestones of Finnish art from the transformative periods of the 20th century.

The second half of the Wing annex will feature a selection of works from the AD HOC Collection donated to the museum by Kristian and Kirsi Gullichsen. The show will also highlight the prominence in the museum’s history of the work of architect Kristian Gullichsen, who designed the original conversion of the building in which the museum was first opened in 1981. The works selected for the exhibition showcase the role of abstract thinking that lies at the heart of modern art and architecture.

Pori Art Museum’s full exhibition programme in 2025

The 2025 exhibition programme at Pori Art Museum is compiled by the museum’s director and chief curator of exhibitions in collaboration with the curators responsible for collections and outreach work, and other museum staff. This year, curator Max Hannus was invited as an external member of the Poriginal Open Call jury. Pori Art School’s traditional children’s spring exhibition will be displayed in the Art Museum’s lecture hall.

• 1.2. – 31.8.2025 Circle
• 1.2. – Maire Gullichsen and the Turning Points of Modernism
• 1.2. – 31.5.2025 Collection exhibition, AD HOC
• 1.2. – 31.5.2025 Adrian Piper: Funk Lessons
• 11.4. – 26.5.2025 Pori Art School exhibition
• 14.6. – 31.8.2025 Laura Lilja
• 14.6. – 31.8.2025 Marta María Peréz Bravo
• 27.9.2025 – 28.2.2026 Sugar Doors: Essi Kausalainen, Olli Keränen, Mikko Kuorinki, Maija Luutonen
• 27.9.2025 – 28.2.2026 melanie bonajo
• 27.9.2025 – 28.2.2026 Shia Conlon and Iona Roisin, Trans Library Helsinki

Poriginal

The Poriginal Gallery, which was previously housed in a separate building, will in the future be located in the main museum building. In 2025, the Poriginal gallery will feature six exhibitions of contemporary art selected through an open call, all of which will present different perspectives on the practice, aesthetics and social relevance of contemporary art.

Poriginal:

• 1.2.–23.3. Elis Hannikainen and Vappu Jalonen  
• 29.3.–11.5. Taru Happonen 
• 17.5.–6.7. Karim Boumjimar  
• 12.7.–7.9. Hillevi Vähälä-Aranko 
• 13.9.–2.11. Kastehelmi Korpijaakko 
• 8.11.–4.1. 2026 Minjee Hwang Kim and Risako Yamanoi