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Noora Sandgren: SymSym

17.10.–15.11.2026

…not yet a word, but a situation – the resonance of an original language from which naming may begin,
 a logic from which something grows, a material gathered by repetitions,
 a reaching towards form in touch: dissolving and braiding back together.

The exhibition is a sibling to the same named one seen in May. It unfolds amid times of change, as an intimate practice of living together with Other(s) becomes especially present. One of the exhibition’s frames of reference is the concept of symbiosis, which emerged in the late 19th century when mycologists recognized that lichens consist of more than one species.

The term stems from the Greek symbíōsis -“living together, companionship”, with sýn/sym meaning: ”together, with,” and bíosis “meaning ”life, living". Forms of coexistence range from reciprocity to asymmetry, from partnership to parasitism. The balances within these relationships remain in motion.

The works in the exhibition explore the interconnections between soil, water, air, and the body. Compost appears both as a fertile metaphor and as a concrete collaborative process – a site of mixing and transformation. Lichens, plankton and microbes act as bridge-like beings, primordial images that bring distinct life forms together. Within the art works, it's the liquid connections that bind different scales and temporalities.

The exhibition consists of cameraless images presented as paper and textile installations, video projections employing microscopy and super 8mm film developed by plants, drawings and organic processes. The works have emerged across different times and places; together they form through acts of fusing, foraging, surplus, and messy relations. In her works, the artist also weaves questions of relationality into the experience of the caregiving body, where the body becomes a growing ground for another, and into a holistic re-forming guided by the other. SymSym opens in the midst of autumns unfolding – light decreases, balance tipping toward a new season.

Noora Sandgren is a Helsinki-based visual artist working with photography, text, installation and durational practices. She explores multispecies co-existence, often sharing authorship with the weather, and different entities. Sandgren participates in interdisciplinary collaborations and artist communities. Her most recent work, Water Bodies (2026), is on view by Yrjönkatu swimhall as part of the public art collection of Helsinki Art Museum.

The artists work is supported by The Finnish Cultural Foundation, family & friends.