IHME Contemporary Art Festival (between 2009-2018), since year 2019 known as IHME Helsinki is a contemporary art organization maintained by Pro Arte Foundation Finland, and supported by Kone Foundation, Saastamoinen Foundation and Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation (until 2025). Between years 2009 and 2018 the festival included a public work of art, a varied programme of events around the artwork, and educational art projects. IHME Project, commissioned by the Festival, was realised in the public realm. A varied Festival programme ranging from artist talks to film screenings opened the IHME Project for discussion and debate and was free to attend. IHME also offered an art education programme, IHME School, with various activities. The word "ihme" means a wonder or a miracle in Finnish.
In 2019 the contemporary art festival changed its name as IHME Helsinki (also IHME) and re-organized its activities to become an organization that situates its activities in a dialogue between art, science and climate work. IHME’s core activity is still the annual staging of a new artwork, together with an artist and Finnish and foreign partners, in public space in Finland and abroad. IHME’s goal is to promote eco-social education, a sustainable, democratic society, and a good life on many levels. Due to the changes in operation the festival event has been abandoned and speaking programs and events are now organized all year round.
Pro Arte Foundation Finland seeks to promote art as a resource for democratic society, and as an important part of human life and everyday existence. The Foundation's aim is to enhance the status and visibility of visual art, to improve the relationship between visual art and the public, and to make it more accessible. The Foundation's work is international in scope and directed at anyone interested in culture. The advisory board of IHME invites the artist to conceive the project, and also plans the other programme. Until year 2019 the advisory board of the foundation was: :fi:Tuula Arkio (chair), :fi:Leevi Haapala, Hanna Johansson, Paula Toppila, and Timo Valjakka. The current advisory board includes Ute Meta Bauer, Hanna Guttorm, Maria Lind, Antti Majava and Paula Toppila as the chair of the board.
IHME Helsinki Commission
Each year, Pro Arte Foundation Finland invites an internationally recognized visual artist or group of artists to make a temporary work of art in public space. The way the IHME Helsinki Commission is to be carried out, along with its form and location, are jointly determined by the Foundation and the selected artist. The admission of the commissioned art work is always free of charge and open to all.
IHME Festival
A varied Festival programme aimed to increase interest in the visual arts and to deepen the public's relationship to it. The programme ranged from talks related to the IHME Project and other topical issues to film screenings and other types of public programming including music and workshops, varying from year to year. Speakers contributing to the programme of talks included artists, also including the Festival artist, as well as academics and professionals from different fields.
IHME Publications
IHME publications documented the events of the annual festival as a digital online publication.
IHME School
IHME School consisted of educational art projects and workshops. The Festival collaborated with schools and universities, as well as The City of Helsinki Youth Division, and produced programmes for different target groups to make contemporary art more accessible.
History IHME Helsinki Commission 2025
The IHME Helsinki Commission 2025 was a series of works titled The Forest by Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadyrova. The project was presented at the Voimala Museum in Vanhankaupunginkoski, Helsinki, from August 24 to October 2, 2025.In the work, Kadyrova addressed the history of the Kakhovka Dam—destroyed in Russian war of aggression on June 6, 2023—and the Zaporizhzhia region, as well as the consequences of the destruction and the forest growing on the site of the former reservoir. The work consisted of video footage shot by the artist in the forest and camera obscura images, as well as archival material obtained from the Dovzhenko Center: texts, videos, and photographs. Over the course of six weeks, the work was viewed by 2,155 visitors. Zhanna Kadyrova (b. 1981) is an internationally acclaimed artist who, in 2025, became the first woman in twenty years to receive the Taras Shevchenko National Prize, Ukraine’s state award for the visual arts. Following the Helsinki exhibition, The Forest was on view in Bialystok, Poland, at Galeria Arsenal as part of Kadyrova’s Avulsion exhibition from December 5, 2025, to February 15, 2026, and in Berlin, Germany, at the Kunstraum Kreutzberg/Bethanien as part of the Echoes of Tumult group exhibition from January 23 to March 22, 2026. Art Center Zaporizhzhia organized a screening of the videos on December 18, 2025.
IHME Helsinki Commission 2024
The IHME Helsinki Commission 2024 was the Maaleipä Challenge by the artist duo Cooking Sections. The project challenged everyone from home bakers to professional chefs to develop new bread recipes that benefit the wellbeing of the soil, waterways, and the human gut. Maaleipä is Finnish and refers to bread for the soil. The challenge began in April 2024 and concluded in September 2024 with the Maaleipä Feast. The Maaleipä Feast featured 14 finalist recipes, six of which received awards. The challenge’s finalist recipes were published on the website maaleipa.fi. Cooking Sections is an internationally acclaimed artist duo consisting of artists Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe. The Maaleipä Challenge was carried out as part of their long-term CLIMAVORE research and action platform, which examines how we should eat as humans change the climate.
IHME Helsinki Commission 2023
IHME Helsinki Commission 2023 was Chicago Boys - While We Were Singing, They Were Dreaming initiated by Kurdish artist and musician Hiwa K.https://ihmehelsinki.fi/en/ihme-helsinki-2023-commission/ In the commission a diverse group of people formed an amateur band and practiced together twice a week for six weeks between 17 April and 27 May 2023. The band consisted of musicians and non-musicians who are united by the desire to play music and to think about the connections between the neoliberal economy and environmental changes to everyday life. The band practice privately in Stoa Cultural Center and publicly in various location around the city of Helsinki. The locations of public rehearsals are all threatened by neoliberal values and urban planning aiming for continuous growth: Lapinlahti Hospital, Puhos Shopping Center, the forests of Riistavuori, Matokallio and Stansvik. In the rehearsals people could share stories of these places and play music together. In each public rehearsal a specialist introduced the location to the band and other participants of the event. The last public rehearsal was held in Stoa Cultural Center on 27 May 2023.
Chicago Boys - While We Were Singing, They Were Dreaming was initiated by Hiwa K in 2010 in London's Serpentine gallery and since then it has been experienced in numerous art organization around the world.
IHME Helsinki Commission 2022 IHME Commission 2022 was an online course created by Indian artist Amar Kanwar. A ten week long online course Learning from Doubt is based on and emerges from the art installation and exhibition, The Sovereign Forest, by Kanwar. The Sovereign Forest, is an art project that has been ongoing since 2009. It has been evolving, expanding and experimenting with different forms and presentations, and has been made in collaboration with Samadrusti/Sudhir Pattnaik and Sherna Dastur. Samadrusti is a fortnightly Odia political and social news magazine, Sudhir Pattnaik is the editor of Samadrusti and a social activist. Sherna Dastur is a graphic designer and filmmaker based in Delhi. The online course was free of charge and open for all but needed registration. The course happened between 15 February and 3 May 2022.
The course ended with first ever public screening of Amar Kanwar's films in Helsinki on 4 May 2022. The screening was free of charge and open for all, also for the ones who had not participated in the course. The screening included three films from Kanwar: A Season Outside (1997), The Face (2004) and Such a Morning (2017).
Since 2022 the course has taken place also in Nepal at the Photo Kathmandu Festival in spring 2023. The course is happening again in collaboration with University of Helsinki and the Academy of Fine Arts of The University of Arts Helsinki in September-October 2023.
IHME Helsinki Commission 2021 IHME Commission 2021 was To Burn, Forest, Fire by Scottish artist Katie Paterson. To Burn, Forest, Fire consisted of the scent of the first-ever forest on earth and the scent of the last forest of the age of climate crisis, made into incense and then burned across a variety of sites around the city of Helsinki in 1-30 September and 1 October, 2021. In connection to the art work there was a booklet published to present the scientific research behind the definitions of the forests and the scents. Essay in the booklet is written by Professor David Haskell. To Burn, Forest, Fire incense ceremonies happen around the world as part of World Weather Network during 21 June 2022 and 21 June 2023.
IHME Helsinki Commission 2020 The first IHME Commission in 2020 was the site-specific sound installation Listening Through the Dead Zones by the Norwegian artist Jana Winderen at the Rowing Stadium in Helsinki. Winderen created the installation in collaboration with Tony Myatt. On the shore of the Baltic Sea, at the Rowing Stadium in Helsinki, the audience was able to listen to different species of mammals, including humans, and to various species of fish and crustacea inhabiting the Ocean. Winderen has been investigating how human activity is influencing the dead zones in the Baltic Sea and similar environments close to shores and in lakes. Due to COVID-19 pandemic the installation was postponed to summer 2021. The installation was open to all to visit between 6 - 24 August 2021. An online version of the sound work is available as part of World Weather Network at IHME Helsinki's weather station between 21 June 2022 and 21 June 2023.
Ihme Contemporary Art Festival 2018 The IHME Project 2018, film entitled THE BEETLE, was conceived by the Swedish artist Henrik Håkansson. The False Click Beetle (Hylochares cruentatus) is an endangered insect that lives on the old Mätäoja riverbed in Vantaa, Finland. Håkansson's movie was screened on both days of the festival that took place on May 25–26 May 2018 in Korjaamo Culture Factory, Helsinki.
The tenth IHME Festival included also other films and video art, talks and music. The festival featured a sound art project The Band of Weeds and singer-songwriter Sofia Jannok. The questions of art and ecology were discussed, among others, by director, playwright and writer Juha Hurme, Professor Jyrki Muona and Academy Research Fellow Marjo Saastamoinen. The programme included also other discussions on the IHME Project and on creating and curating art to the public space.
IHME Festival arranged programme also in endangered beetle's habitat in Myyrmäki, Vantaa between June 1–10, 2018. This part of the programme included screenings of Håkansson's film, workshops and guided tours. IHME audience workers also cycled around the area and gave information about the IHME Project, the beetle and the nature of the area.
The 2018 IHME Project THE BEETLE will be viewable internationally at Yle Areena, Finland's national streaming service, until May 2019.
Ihme Contemporary Art Festival 2017