Mami Kataoka and Arja Miller to Curate Fourth Helsinki Biennial

Mami Kataoka and Arja Miller to Curate Fourth Helsinki Biennial

The organizers of theHelsinki Biennialhave appointedMami KataokaandArja Millerco-curators of the Fourth Helsinki Biennial, to take place in summer 2027. Kataoka is director of Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum and is known for curatorial work centering social themes, fostering intercultural dialogue, and examining the role of art in relation to global structures. Miller is director of the Helsinki Art Museum, and has gained a reputation for curation that takes urban development into account, frequently presenting site-specific and multisensory works that explore universal themes and open onto the unknown.

“Our joint curatorial approach will be based on the idea of art that connects and inspires broad audiences, encourages transcultural dialogue and fresh perspectives, and shares universal views on the environment and cosmology,” said Kataoka and Miller in a joint statement. “Our goal is to create a polyphonic and thought-provoking biennial that will resonate both locally and internationally.”

Kataoka joined the Mori Art Museum in 2003 as chief curator and rose to become director there in 2020. She was international curator at the Hayward Gallery in London from 2007 to 2009 and chief curator of the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery from 1997 to 2002. She was artistic director of Japan’s Aichi Triennale 2022 as well as artistic director of the Twenty-First Biennale of Sydney in 2018 and co-artistic director of the Ninth Gwangju Biennale in 2012.

Prior to arriving at HAM, Miller from 2017 to 2023 served as exhibition manager and chief curator at the EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art in Finland. From 2008 to 2017, she was chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Finland, and earlier spent seven years as head of audience engagement at the Helsinki City Art Museum. Among the notable exhibitions she has curated are the technology- and AI-themed “In Search of the Present” at EMMA. She also helped to organize two editions of the ARS exhibition series at Kiasma.