) , established = (Museum of Contemporary Art)
(opening of Kiasma building) , dissolved = , location =

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, type =

Art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. A ...

, accreditation = , key_holdings = , collections =

Contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

, collection_size = , visitors = 295,000 (2017) , founder = , director = Leevi Haapala , president = , curator = , owner =

Finnish National Gallery Finnish National Gallery ( fi, Suomen Kansallisgalleria, sv, Finlands Nationalgalleri) is the largest art museum institution of Finland. It consists of the Ateneum, an art museum; Kiasma, a contemporary art museum; and the Sinebrychoff Art Museu ...

, publictransit = , car_park = , parking = , network = , website = , embedded = Kiasma is a

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

located on

Mannerheimintie Mannerheimintie ( sv, Mannerheimvägen), named after the Finnish military leader and statesman Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, is the main street and boulevard of Helsinki, Finland. It was originally named Heikinkatu ( sv, Henriksgatan), after Rob ...

. Its name ''kiasma'', Finnish for chiasma, alludes to the basic conceptual idea of its architect,

Steven Holl Steven Holl (born December 9, 1947) is a New York-based American architect and watercolorist. Among his most recognized works are the 2019 REACH expansion of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the 2019 Hunters Point Library in Q ...

. Kiasma is part of the

, and it is responsible for the gallery's contemporary art collection. Its central goal is to showcase contemporary art and to strengthen its status.

History

Kiasma construction site, 1996 (14300445731)

The contemporary art collection began as the Museum of Contemporary Art ( fi, Nykytaiteen museo) in 1990. In its earliest stages, the collection was housed in

Ateneum Ateneum is an art museum in Helsinki, Finland and one of the three museums forming the Finnish National Gallery. It is located in the centre of Helsinki on the south side of Rautatientori square close to Helsinki Central railway station. It has t ...

. An

architectural design competition An architectural design competition is a type of design competition in which an organization that intends on constructing a new building invites architects to submit design proposals. The winning design is usually chosen by an independent panel o ...

to design a building for the contemporary arts museum was held in 1992. The competition was open to architects from the Nordic and

Baltic countries The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...

, in addition to which four architects or studios from elsewhere were invited to participate, though they were obliged to submit their proposals anonymously:

from the US, Alvaro Siza from Portugal,

Coop Himmelblau Coop Himmelb(l)au (A pun meaning ''Coop Sky Building'' and ''Coop Sky Blue'') is an architecture, urban planning, design, and art firm founded by Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky, and Michael Holzer in Vienna, Austria in 1968. History Coop Him ...

from Austria, and

Kazuo Shinohara was a Japanese architect, forming what is now widely known as the "Shinohara School", which has been linked to the works of Toyo Ito, Kazunari Sakamoto and Itsuko Hasegawa. As architectural critic Thomas Daniell put it, "A key figure who explic ...

from Japan. The competition results were announced in 1993, and the winning proposal, titled ''Chiasma'' by Steven Holl, was selected from the 516 submitted entries. The design of the building, Finnishized as "Kiasma", underwent slight modification during the design process, but nevertheless was regarded as controversial; for instance its close proximity to the equestrian statue of Finnish President

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (, ; 4 June 1867 – 27 January 1951) was a Finnish military leader and statesman. He served as the military leader of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War of 1918, as Regent of Finland (1918–1919), as comma ...

. Construction work began in 1996, and the museum opened in May 1998. The museum attracted 160,000–180,000 visitors per year in 2011–2013. Kiasma was closed for repairs in September 2014 and reopened in March 2015. In 2016, Kiasma attracted over 310,000 visitors.

Collections

The collections include works by around 8,000 artists, including Reetta Ahonen,

Martti Aiha Martti Aiha (born 1952) is a sculptor from Finland. He was born in Pudasjärvi and worked in Fiskars. He has made abstracted sculptured wall reliefs and free-standing sculptures. His reliefs made of transparent acrylic sheet give an impression of ...

, Jan van Andersson Aken, Anders Gustaf,

Antonio Rotta Antonio Rotta (28 February 1828 – 10/11 September 1903) was an Italian painter, mainly of genre subjects. Biography Rotta was born on 28 February 1828 in Gorizia in the Kingdom of Illyria. He enrolled at the Accademia Reale di Belle Arti ...

Bernard Baron Bernard Baron (1696? – 1762) Web articl Library of Congress, lower section "About the Artists" was a French engraver and etcher who spent much of his life in England. Life Baron was born in Paris in 1696, the son of the engraver Laurent Baron ...

, Stig Baumgartner,

Cornelis Bega Cornelis Pietersz Bega, or ''Cornelis Pietersz Begijn'' (1631/32 – 27 August 1664) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver. Bega was born, lived and worked in Haarlem and was the son of sculptor and goldsmith Pieter Jansz. Begijn. H ...

, Erik Snedsbøl,

Nicolas Berchem Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem (1 October 1620 – 18 February 1683) was a highly esteemed and prolific Dutch Golden Age painter of pastoral landscapes, populated with mythological or biblical figures, but also of a number of allegories and genre ...

Honoré Daumier Honoré-Victorin Daumier (; February 26, 1808February 10, 1879) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the second N ...

Karel Dujardin Karel Dujardin (September 27, 1626November 20, 1678) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Although he did a few portraits and a few history paintings of religious subjects, most of his work is small Italianate landscape scenes with animals and peasan ...

, , , , , and Risto Laakkonen.

Gallery

References

External links

* {{authority control Infrastructure completed in 1998 Contemporary art galleries in Finland Museums in Helsinki Modern art museums Steven Holl buildings Art museums and galleries in Finland 1998 establishments in Finland Art museums established in 1998 Kluuvi

History

Collections

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links