Saastamoinen Foundation is supporting artist Ana Teresa Barboza's work at the Helsinki Biennial 2025. The artist's works are being shown for the first time in Finland.
Ana Teresa Barboza is a Peruvian artist whose works combine the mediums of installation and textile art. Barboza uses natural fibres in her works and explores the narratives associated with them. With the support of the Foundation, Barboza has created a new installation for the Helsinki Biennial, which is on display in Vallisaari until September. The biennial’s theme, ‘Shelter’, is inspired by Vallisaari’s uninhabited, sea-surrounded, and diverse ecosystem.
In the work ‘Interwoven Stories’ (2025), traditional materials characteristic of two cultures, yanchama tree used by indigenous peoples of the Amazon region and its Nordic counterpart, birchbark, meet. The work, created specifically for the Biennial, is found inside Vallisaari’s historic Alexander Battery, where it envelops the visitor. The installation takes the visitor on a journey from northern forests to distant jungles, inviting to reflect on the similarities between these two divergent environments.
The work has been created in collaboration with the Mariche family, local artisans from Puerto Maldonado, who extracted the fibres from yanchama trees in Peru. On the inner surfaces of the woven tree trunks, Barboza has drawn charcoal illustrations narrating the cultures and history of the two trees.
”At Saastamoinen Foundation, we promote international and open cooperation as well as cultural sustainability. Helsinki Biennal brings together works by both Finnish and international artists and we are proud to make possible, for the first time in Finland, Barboza’s impressive spatial installation, says Päivi Karttunen, member of board and chair of the art committee.
Helsinki Biennial is an international contemporary art event held every two years, now taking place for the third time. The event showcases 37 international artists and artist groups from both Finland and around the world. The theme of this now-opened third biennial is ‘Shelter’, taking inspiration from the Vallisaari Island, which has been preserved from human habitation for decades. The biennial focuses on the relationship between humanity and nature. At the same time, art forges new places of shelter and encourages positive environmental action.
Helsinki Biennial 2025 is open until 21 September 2025 in Vallisaari, Helsinki.
For more information:
Ana Teresa Barboza is a Peruvian artist whose works combine the mediums of installation and textile art. Barboza uses natural fibres in her works and explores the narratives associated with them. With the support of the Foundation, Barboza has created a new installation for the Helsinki Biennial, which is on display in Vallisaari until September. The biennial’s theme, ‘Shelter’, is inspired by Vallisaari’s uninhabited, sea-surrounded, and diverse ecosystem.
In the work ‘Interwoven Stories’ (2025), traditional materials characteristic of two cultures, yanchama tree used by indigenous peoples of the Amazon region and its Nordic counterpart, birchbark, meet. The work, created specifically for the Biennial, is found inside Vallisaari’s historic Alexander Battery, where it envelops the visitor. The installation takes the visitor on a journey from northern forests to distant jungles, inviting to reflect on the similarities between these two divergent environments.
The work has been created in collaboration with the Mariche family, local artisans from Puerto Maldonado, who extracted the fibres from yanchama trees in Peru. On the inner surfaces of the woven tree trunks, Barboza has drawn charcoal illustrations narrating the cultures and history of the two trees.
”At Saastamoinen Foundation, we promote international and open cooperation as well as cultural sustainability. Helsinki Biennal brings together works by both Finnish and international artists and we are proud to make possible, for the first time in Finland, Barboza’s impressive spatial installation, says Päivi Karttunen, member of board and chair of the art committee.
Helsinki Biennial is an international contemporary art event held every two years, now taking place for the third time. The event showcases 37 international artists and artist groups from both Finland and around the world. The theme of this now-opened third biennial is ‘Shelter’, taking inspiration from the Vallisaari Island, which has been preserved from human habitation for decades. The biennial focuses on the relationship between humanity and nature. At the same time, art forges new places of shelter and encourages positive environmental action.
Helsinki Biennial 2025 is open until 21 September 2025 in Vallisaari, Helsinki.
For more information: helsinkibiennaali.fi/en
Photographs:
- The work invites visitors to reflect on the similarities between two divergent environments and their nonhuman and human inhabitants.
- Evoking a forest or landscape, the work is an installation of towering trees woven from birch and yanchama bark.
- The charcoal drawings on the cores of the tree trunks illustrate the culture and history of the birch and yanchama trees.
- The installation is built inside the Alexander Battery, which is normally closed to the public.
