Opening Exhibitions
International contemporary art and collection highlights
WAM will open to the public following an extensive renovation. The opening programme brings together international media art, classic sculptures by Wäinö Aaltonen and the renewed WAMx platform, which introduces a new space for experimentation and encounter within the museum. The exhibitions will open on 31 October 2026.
Sabrina Ratté: Web of Wyrd
Web of Wyrd, the first solo exhibition in the Nordic countries by Canadian media artist Sabrina Ratté (b. 1982), will inaugurate a new exhibition space on the museum’s ground floor. Based in Montreal, Ratté is known for her visually rich works combining 3D animation, analog video, print, and installation. At WAM, she will create a mystical environment where the boundaries between the space and the artwork are deliberately blurred.
The exhibition presents eight works created in the 2020s, shown as large-scale projections and image prints. Influenced by science fiction, the works reflect the artist’s interest in spirituality and animism.
Primal Force – Works from the Turku City Art Collection
Covering the period from the museum’s construction in the 1960s to the present day, the collection exhibition brings together sculptures by Wäinö Aaltonen alongside other key works from the collection.
The exhibition takes its title from Aaltonen’s miniature sculpture Primal Force (1915), which depicts a forcefully advancing human figure toppling classical marble columns. The work reflects Aaltonen’s view of art as a means of renewal and a challenge to tradition. Visitors can also explore the artist’s life and work through a new audio play produced specifically for the exhibition.
WAMx – room for collaboration and exchange
WAMx will open with Notes on the State of the World, a body of work by serial and photographic artist Kati Rapia and visual artist Ilona Valkonen. Working in collaboration with young people, the artists will collect marine litter and lead photography workshops along the Baltic Sea, a region under significant environmental pressure.
During the summer of 2026, Rapia and Valkonen will conduct workshops with local youth in the Turku archipelago. These activities will be complemented by dancers from the Regional Dance Centre of Western Finland, who have participated in the youth workshops.
