Moving image

Diego Marcon, Dolle, 2023. Video Still. Saastamoinen Foundation Art cCollection. In courtesy of Galerie Buchholz Berlin/Cologne/New York & Sadie Coles HQ, London.

Moving image is one of the focus areas of the strategy of the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection. Moving image works are presented at EMMA as part of the Saastamoinen Foundation collection exhibition, as well as in a space designed specifically for media art.

In 2025, the space will feature two new media art acquisitions by the f´Doundation: Dolle (2023) by Italian artist Diego Marcon and The Genealogy of Violence (2023) by French-Algerian artist Mohamed Bourouissa. In addition, the Dialogues collection exhibition includes the silent work Untitled (New Way) (2009) by Rashaad Newsome.

The media space within the Saastamoinen Foundation collection exhibition showcases the Foundation’s recent media art acquisitions. The works use video as a highly flexible, immediate, and adaptable medium, with an inherent ability to challenge traditional value hierarchies.

Diego Marcon: Dolle. 12 February 2025 – 7 September 2025

Diego Marcon, Dolle, 2023. Video Still. Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection. In courtesy of Galerie Buchholz Berlin/Cologne/New York & Sadie Coles HQ, London.

The main characters of Dolle are two moles and their sleeping children. The moles are robots built specifically for the work, programmed to calculate a sequence of 53 numbers. Despite their precise programming, the moles arrive at different results and continuously restart their task from the beginning. Small signs—such as the hoot of an owl and the drip of water from a faucet—mark the passage of time as they face their seemingly endless task.

Diego Marcon is an Italian contemporary artist who explores the language, narrative, and structure of film. Instead of spoken language and a unified storyline, Marcon’s films often highlight the visual narrative and repetition itself.

The work will be on view in the Saastamoinen Foundation Media Space at EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art from February 12, 2025, to September 7, 2025

Mohamed Bourouissa: The Genealogy of Violence. 24 September 2025 – 15 February 2026

Mohamed Bourouissa: The Genealogy of Violence, 2024. Video still. Saastamoisen säätiön taidekokoelma. © Mohamed Bouroissa ADAGP, Divioson.

Set in a world of emotions and sensations, the film follows a couple talking in a car in an ordinary French suburb. Suddenly, two police officers interrupt them and detain one of the protagonists to conduct a body search. Special effects take the viewer inside the protagonist’s mind, offering an embodied experience of what it feels like to have one’s body taken away. ‘When the police stop us and search our bodies, we are no longer subjects but become dangerous objects,’ the artist has described.

Mohamed Bourouissa (b. 1978, Algeria) often addresses social issues and the experiences of immigrants in his video and photographic works. He is regarded as one of the most important French artists of his generation.

Rashaad Newsome: Untitled (New Way). 24 November 2023 – 23 November 2025

Rashaad Newsome, Untitled (New Way), 2009, video still

American artist Rashaad Newsome’s (b. 1979) silent work Untitled (New Way) (2009) transforms the moving body into something sculptural, like a spatial drawing, while honoring the cultural specificity and skill of vogue dance. Value hierarchies dissolve as Newsome’s dancer claims the white cube with virtuosic movement. The work is exceptionally presented outside the media room, as part of the collection exhibition’s display, creating a dialogue with other works in the show.

Antti Laitinen. © Ari Karttunen/EMMA.

Comin on view
Antti Laitinen

The artist for the upcoming InCollection exhibition, opening in autumn 2025, is Antti Laitinen. Laitinen (b. 1975) is known for his works and installations combining photography, video, and performance. His international career has brought his exhibitions to audiences in the Nordic countries, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States, and China. In 2013, he represented Finland at the 55th Venice Art Biennale.

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Collection exhibition Dialogues

The concept of Saastamoinen Foundation’s collection exhibition at EMMA is being renewed. The exhibition’s installation will change section by section to the new Dialogues exhibition, with the first complete section opening to the public in 2023. The second section opened in 2024. Dialogues is based on the conversation between artworks and is primarily curated from recent acquisitions of the foundation’s art collection. The exhibition concept continues the significant collaboration between Saastamoinen Foundation and EMMA, showcasing the diversity of one of Finland’s most significant art collections.

In the foreground: Rasheed Araeen, Chaar Pellay, 1968-2017. In the background: Leena Luostarinen, Nefertiti in the Garden of Fragrances, 1998. Dialogues, Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection © Paula Virta / EMMA

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