Museum of Impossible Forms

Building power from below. Lecture and artist talk Mariano Pacheco & Diego Bruno Thursday, 14 May, 2026 16:00–18:00 As part of the exhibition Productive Unit at the Museum of Impossible Forms, writer and militant Mariano Pacheco will deliver a lecture followed by a conversation with the artist Diego Bruno. Departing from the question of what a people can do when they move from victimhood towards struggle and self-organisation, the lecture traces the transformations of popular movements in Argentina over the past fifty years against the backdrop of neoliberal restructuring and the contemporary rise of the far right and authoritarian politics. Moving from the 1976 military coup and its project of state terror and economic liberalisation, the talk reflects on how the destruction of industrial labour and organised working-class life gave rise to new territorial and community-based forms of political organisation, from the Madres de Plaza de Mayo to the piquetero movement, feminist struggles, and the popular economy. Through these experiences, the presentation examines how collective infrastructures of care, self-management, and social reproduction emerged as forms of resistance to capitalist precarity and social fragmentation, while simultaneously shaping new political subjectivities and forms of militancy. It foregrounds the importance of studying and translating these experiences in order to imagine new political strategies and forms of solidarity across different contexts. Mariano Pacheco is a writer, journalist, and militant whose work spans cultural criticism, political education, and social movement organising. His work moves between philosophy, literature, psychoanalysis, and the history of Argentine social and political struggles, which he develops through research, publishing, and pedagogical initiatives. Over the years, he has contributed to political formation processes across Latin America. This marks his first visit outside Latin America.

Diego Bruno: Productive Unit On view: 18 April – 31 May 2026 Thu–Fri 14–18 Sat–Sun 12–16 Or by appointment Warmly welcome to the opening of Diego Bruno’s exhibition Productive Unit on Friday, 17 April 2026 from 17:00 to 20:00 at Museum of Impossible Forms. Productive Unit is a 57-minute experimental film and installation by Diego Bruno, developed through a research process in collaboration with militants from the MTD – Movimiento de Trabajadores Desocupados (Unemployed Workers Movement) in Argentina. Emerging in the late 1990s, the MTD developed forms of social organisation grounded in self-management, autonomy, and communal production. Over time, it has contributed to worker-run cooperatives, recuperated factories, and grassroots structures sustaining alternative economic and political models. The work brings together archival documents and newly produced footage to reflect on the political capacity of the movement, while interrogating the forms through which such histories are communicated. It asks to what extent experimental moving-image practices can offer compelling modes for representing radical political processes. By insisting on the materiality of language, image, and spatial arrangement, Bruno situates the exhibition as an active site where aesthetic propositions are not only shown but tested in their capacity to circulate, to sediment, and to re-emerge within the social and political fabric of their reception. Diego Bruno lives and works in Helsinki. His multidisciplinary practice spans moving image, writing, drawing, and photography, emphasising the friction between artistic forms and political awareness within their respective narratives, and engaging with the epistemological, artistic, and political disputes of the present. Read more about the exhibition on the link in bio! The film has been produced and edited with support from AVEK, Koneen Säätiö, Linnamon Säätiö and Carbon Copy ky.

Soft and Hard Power Special issue of Mustekala online cultural journal Saturday, 14 March 2026 15:00 - 17:00 Museum of Impossible Forms @museumofimpossibleforms [Artwork: @karolinakucia ] Welcome to the launch event and discussion on Saturday, 14 March at 15:00 at the Museum of Impossible Forms. This thematic issue of Mustekala online cultural journal emerged from the shared concerns of eleven contemporary art professionals regarding the accelerating militarisation and financialisation of society. The contributors also examine the shift of power within the art field toward private foundations and collectors, and how this transformation is reflected in both art and society. More specifically, the issue addresses the following topics: institutional self-censorship; art as a tool of international diplomacy; the hegemony of financialisation; blacklists; the culturalisation of warfare; the dangers of normalisation and the demand for democratic processes; the redistribution of resources within the art field; and the shift from a paternalistic leadership culture in the paper industry to similar structures in art museums. The special issue includes contributions by: Terike Haapoja & Jussi Koitela, Minna Henriksson, Miina Hujala, Savu E. Korteniemi, Ansa Masiina & R. Liininen, Tero Nauha & Karolina Kucia, Merja Puustinen, and Eero Yli-Vakkuri. With editorial support by Jenna Jauhiainen and image editing by Ida Palojärvi. The event starts with an introduction to each contribution, after which we welcome an open discussion about the above topic of ‘soft and hard power’. Several protest-decorations made in workshops around Finland are also presented in the event. These were originally produced for an Alkovi gallery exhibition (on view from November 2025 to February 2026) bearing the same name as the special issue. The special issue is published in Finnish, but the launch event will be held in English. /teemanumerot/ @minna.henriksson @terike.haapoja @mustekala.info @karolinakucia @puustinen.merja @idapaloj @saukorte @tuomaalamartta

Universes of Images Screening series and talks With Kerstin Schroedinger and Angela Melitopoulos Thursdays 5, 12 & 19 of March, 2026 17:00 - 20:00 In this series of three screenings we will seek to understand image practices that aim to rework archival and found footage that allow for a narration of ‘minor histories’. The ability of image practices to produce facts and the dissolve community have become operative and media agents in the current structures of biopolitical governance. We will watch works that are concerned with the interwoven processes of industrialisation, the formation of modern nationalism, and the violent ruptures modernity implied in the shaping of societies. The series accompanies the Universes of Images thematic course at the Academy of Fine Arts, led by Mika Elo, Marjaana Keller, and Kerstin Schroedinger. The screening series is programmed and introduced by Kerstin Schroedinger and follows the visiting professorship of artist Angela Melitopoulos at the Academy of Fine Arts. Schedule: Thursday, 5 March, 17:00 - 20:00 Introduction by Kerstin Schroedinger Kamal Aljafari, A Fidai Film, 2024, 76 min Miranda Penell, Man No. 4, 9 min, UK 2024 Thursday, 12 March, 17:00 - 20:00 Mareike Bernien/Kerstin Schroedinger, Rainbow’s Gravity, Ger/UK 2014, 33 min Angela Melitopoulos, The Language of Things, 2007, 37 min Followed by a conversation with Angela Melitopoulos and Kerstin Schroedinger Thursday, 19 March, 17:00 - 20:00 Angela Melitopoulos/Maurizio Lazzarato, Assemblages, 2010, 62 min Followed by a conversation with Angela Melitopoulos Warmly welcome!

Mä Lupaan, Mä Vannon Saban Ramadani Screening and conversation Tuesday, 3rd March, 2026 18:00-20:00 Mä lupaan, Mä vannon emerges from an inquiry into whiteness as a social structure. The project examines how whiteness operates within space, particularly within institutional contexts, and how it shapes belonging, visibility, and recognition. It asks: how does one become white in Finnish society? Is immigration ever complete, or does it remain an ongoing condition? What forms of transformation, adaptation, or erasure does this process entail? This work is situated within artistic research through which Saban Ramadani reflects on his own position in Finland—tracing a trajectory from arriving as a refugee to becoming a middle-class subject. Through performance, embodiment, and narrative, the project considers whiteness not as a fixed identity, but as a structure that is learned, negotiated, and imposed. Saban Ramadani (b. 1991, Kosovo) is an artist based in Helsinki working across performance, acting, video, sound, and writing. His practice engages with embodiment, memory, and the politics of perception. His current research focuses on the phenomenology of whiteness and its manifestation within social and institutional life. The performance will take place at @stoahelsinki on Friday 27 February and Saturday 28 February at 17:00. Each performance has a duration of approximately 25 minutes. On 3 March at 18:00, the Museum of Impossible Forms will host a screening of Ramadani’s video work connected to the project. The screening will be followed by a conversation with the artist, opening space to reflect on the work’s artistic and research dimensions, and on the broader questions it raises around race, migration, and institutional belonging.

📣 APPLICATION REMINDER The Open Call for the Dreaming Suburbs Residency Program 2026 is still open - but not for long! 📆 Deadline: February 16, 2026 📍 Location: Til Vægs, Copenhagen 🇩🇰 🗓️ Residency Period: April 8 - May 3, 2026 Dreaming Suburbs is a two year initiative at the intersection of art, activism and urban planning. It invites artists to explore how art can be both a critical and generative force in shaping the futures of our cities. We’re looking for an artist for a four-week residency in Copenhagen. The residency is research-driven and community-oriented, offering space to engage with local contexts, respond to the contradictions of urban development and the opportunity to experiment artistically. We offer: 💶 € 2,750 stipend ✈️ Travel support up to € 800 🏠 Accommodation + work space 🤝 Local network access 🌍 Interdisciplinary and community-engaged environment APPLY NOW! ⛓️‍💥 More info + how to apply: link in bio 📩 [email protected] 📸 ‘Min Rivalindes Øje’ by Mette Nisgaard Larsen (2024). Photo: Marina Castagna. #dreamingsuburbs #opencall #residency @til_vaegs #creativeeurope

OPEN CALL: Dreaming Suburbs Residency 2026 Location: Til Vægs, Copenhagen - @til_vaegs 🔹 Residency Dates: April 8 - May 3, 2026 🔹 Application Deadline: February 16, 2026 Dreaming Suburbs is a two-year initiative positioned at the intersection of art, activism and urban planning. The project responds to the need for art organizations to take a responsible role in the contexts they are immersed in, and investigates how art can be both a critical and generative force in shaping the future of cities. We are looking for an artist for a four-week residency taking place in the Spring of 2026 at Til Vægs in Copenhagen - an art platform working with socially engaged and temporary art in public space in a common housing area. A selected artist will be invited to immerse themselves in the local context and community, engage in dialogue with the Dreaming Suburbs project - reflecting on the contemporary contradictions of urban development and responding through artistic experimentation. 📩 Find more info + how to apply via link in bio. 💬 We warmly invite you to apply - and to share this call with those who might be interested. 📷 Skye Jin & Skovhavelunden (2023-) and live performance by Jessie Kleemann (2025). #opencall #artistresidency #dreamingsuburbs #contemporaryart #creativeeurope

Treason to Whiteness. A reading circle on abolitionist thought and radical race critique Welcome to a reading circle organised by the Museum of Impossible Forms as part of the Invisible Race exhibition. Across three sessions, we will collectively engage with key currents of abolitionist thought and radical race critique through the work of organiser, author, and theorist Noel Ignatiev (1940–2019), focusing on selected texts from the journal Race Traitor (1992–2005), published under the motto “Treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity.” Together, we will read and discuss how these texts unsettle dominant understandings of race, privilege, and power—and consider their relevance for contemporary anti-racist work. The reading circle offers a shared space for slow reading, critical conversation, and reflection on how abolitionist tradition can support liberatory practices in Finland today. 👥 Max. 15 participants 📝 Register by 5 Feb 2026: link in bio 🗣 Language: English 🎟 Free participation + free access to the museum and exhibitions 📅 Sessions on Saturdays: 7 Feb, 21 Feb & 28 Feb 2026 ⏰ 13:00–15:00 📍 Finnish Museum of Photography, Kaapeliaukio 3, Helsinki 📷 Scene in LA after Rodney King verdict. Race Traitor Journal #1, 1993.

Publishing as Scaffolding Talks # 6 : Sarasija Subramanian presenting Reliable Copy Wednesday, January 28th | 18:00 - 20:00 Museum of Impossible Forma Welcome to a talk by @sarasija.subramanian on @reliablecopy organized by Rab-Rab Press at @museumofimpossibleforms . Sarasija will introduce Reliable Copy’s publishing practice over the years, focussing on their (Fine) Arts Dissertations Series, facsimiles of graduate-level college dissertations by artists from The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (Gujarat, India), the first art college established in India post-Independence. Functioning as an early mode of artists’ writing which encouraged articulation, research, reflection, rigour, and documentation as key modes of learning within the largely studio-based programme, the dissertation was—and continues to be—a component which encouraged students to reflect on their studio practice and processes. She will also discuss their book ‘Modernism/Murderism: The Modern Art Debate in Kumar’ which compiles (and presents for the first time in English) a debate around modern art’s emergence into the Indian subcontinent from 1959 to 1964 between Jyoti Bhatt, then a young artist in Baroda, Pherozeshah Mehta, an art connoisseur and writer from Karachi, and readers and respondents of the Gujarati periodical ‘Kumar’. Sarasija Subramanian is an artist based in Bangalore, India, where she is also the editor of Reliable Copy, a publishing house and curatorial practice for works, projects, and writing by artists. Reliable Copy was founded in 2018, and publishes books and documents, curates exhibitions and screenings, undertakes research projects, and hosts a wide variety of public programming. It is represented by the artists Nihaal Faizal and Sarasija Subramanian. This is the sixth Publishing as Scaffolding talk organised by Rab-Rab Press. The talks are supported by the Kone Foundation @koneensaatio

Open Call: R33 – Together In Labour Research agenda: In precarious times, what strategies can small-scale arts and cultural organisations adopt to sustain themselves and support one another? Application deadline: 11 February 2026, 23:59 CET Residency dates: 1–14 June 2026 Developed by Nicholas J. Jones, artistic director of PRAKSIS, and Giovanna Esposito Yussif, artistic director of Museum of Impossible Forms, in collaboration with Tenthaus Work in small arts organisations is often cast in the language of reproduction: organisers’ projects are “brainchildren” that need to be “grown,” “nurtured” and “kept alive” via labour that demands sustained personal commitment. Presenting arts organisations as passion projects and arts workers as instinctive, unstoppable givers of social gifts, this kind of language obscures the punishing economic and labour conditions most small arts organisations face. This two-week residency in Oslo offers an opportunity to unpack the situation and discuss sustainable solutions. It is proposed by PRAKSIS (Oslo), the Museum of Impossible Forms (Helsinki), and Tenthaus (Oslo): small independent arts organisations sustained by passion, solidarity and a commitment to cultural change. Like many of our peers we inhabit an increasingly unstable socio-economic environment and face insecure funding structures, rising costs, shrinking political support and increasing pressure to produce more with less. Together In Labour invites fellow organisers, artists, curators, educators and activists who are similarly tackling the tensions of small-scale cultural work to share experiences, map obstacles, and imagine strategies for survival, continuity, and more workable conditions. Priority will be given to applicants whose practice is materially connected to small organisational work. Visit to read more and find the application form. @praksisoslo @museumofimpossibleforms @tenthausoslo @eygio @nicholasjjones @ebba.moi

Shaheen Ahmed was the residency artist in the Museum of Impossible Forms during six week from September to October 2025. During the Dreaming Suburbs residency in Helsinki, Shaheen continued developing his research project Naz̤ar, engaging with the often-unseen spiritual life of Muslim migrants in the city, held in makeshift mosques tucked into basements and improvised apartment rooms across Helsinki. The audio-visual field recordings and reflections gathered during this period will grow into a new body of work that will be presented at the Dreaming Suburbs exhibition at Konsthall C, Stockholm in February 2026. About the artist: Shaheen Ahmed is a filmmaker from the Malabar Coast of Kerala, South India. His work explores memory and identity, often at the intersection of faith, intimacy, and collective spiritual imagination. Dreaming Suburbs (2024–2026) is a two-year initiative positioned at the intersection of art, activism, and urban planning. The project responds to the need for art organisations to take a responsible role in the contexts they are immersed in, and investigates how art can be both a critical and generative force in shaping the future of cities. The project is co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the EU. #creativeeurope #luovaeurooppa