Unleash Your Imagination: Finnish Artist Brings Playfulness and Humour to Kunsten
Fill with own imagination. This is the invitation from the renowned Finnish contemporary artist Elina Brotherus in her exhibition at Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg.
Asking “What if?” and “Why not?”, Brotherus has created a number of brand new works based on the architecture of the museum and its Fluxus collection.
The exhibition Fill With Own Imagination opens on 9 October 2025.
Elina Brotherus, Museum Walks, 2025. (Video)
(Part 3 after Bruce Nauman, Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk) (1968), Part 4 after Walter de Maria, Beach Crawl (1960), Part 5 after George Brecht, Three Yellow Events from Water Yam, I: yellow, yellow, yellow (1961))
For this exhibition, with her usual brand of poetry, humour and pensiveness, Brotherus has created some completely new film and photographic works, inspired by the architecture of the museum, its Fluxus collection and the untamed nature of North Jutland.
“Elina Brotherus invites us to explore the museum with new eyes. She plays with the building, its story and our imagination, reminding us that, just because we’re grown up, there’s no need to stop asking such questions as ‘What if?’ or ‘Why not?’,” explains Caroline Nymark Zachariassen, the museum’s Chief Curator.
The museum in the dark and nature as a stage
Many of the new works feature Brotherus herself in the leading role. She prowls around the museum after closing hours, following in the footsteps of Fluxus artists like Yoko Ono, and allowing the architecture of the museum to play an active role. She has also created new works in Aalborg and Råbjerg Mile near Skagen, where the landscape provides a stage for her experimental performance.
“In the past, whenever I saw a stunning landscape, I’d place myself in the foreground with my back towards the camera, inviting the spectator to look at the view with me. But in recent years, sometimes I’ve started to enjoy shattering the pretty picture and rebelling against beauty, using event scores and other found or invented instructions. Absurdity marks a new turning point in my oeuvre,” explains Elina Brotherus.
Never stop playing
The new works will be presented alongside a number of her earlier works and a selection of Fluxus pieces from the museum’s collection.
“The most important work in the museum’s collection is Alvar and Elissa Aalto’s iconic building – and our Fluxus collection comes to life when it’s activated. Play and creativity are also an integral part of this museum’s approach to children. So, it feels natural and life affirming for a Nordic artist such as Elina Brotherus to challenge us all – children and adults alike – to play forever. It’s a sensuous, playful, reflective part of our cultural development,” says Lasse Andersson, Director of Kunsten.
New ways of looking at architecture
Since the 1990s, Elina Brotherus has made a name for herself as one of the leading artists in Scandinavia. Her works range from autobiographical self-portraiture to performative video, often with references to architecture or the written word, or coloured by a feminist reinterpretation of art history.
Working with iconic buildings, Brotherus takes a contemporary look at the architectural past. She also transforms classic architectural photography by involving a fictional resident.
The meaning of meaningless
In her numerous residential architecture series, she steps into a time machine, on some occcasions popping up in the 1930s, on others the 1970s. She is particularly interested in the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, who also designed the marble building for Kunsten.
“Elina Brotherus astonishes us, and encourages us to use our own imagination. Her works may be humorous, but they also get us to stop and think about our own freedom. She enters into dialogue with art history and the work of other artists by showing a series of quirky, sometimes absurd acts and encounters – and highlighting the importance of play and experiment,” explains Caroline Nymark Zachariassen. “Brotherus shows us that art can also be about the joy of trying something new – without any specific purpose.”
Practical information
Fill With Own Imagination will run at Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg from 9 October 2025 to 6 April 2026.
Elina Brotherus, Dune Piece, 2025. (Video)
(After Yoko Ono, Line Piece I: Draw a line. Erase the line. (1964))
About Elina Brotherus
Elina Brotherus lives and works in Avallon, France and Helsinki, Finland. She holds an MA in Photography from the University of Art and Design Helsinki (now Aalto University) and an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Helsinki. Her awards include: the Artist Professorship Grant of the Arts Promotion Centre Finland (2022-2026); the Carte blanche PMU, France (2017); the Finnish State Prize for Photography (2008); and the Prix Niépce of Gens d’image (2005). Her works feature in more than 80 public collections, including the Pompidou Centre (Paris, France), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Humlebæk, Denmark), LACMA (Los Angeles, USA) and Moderna Museet (Stockholm, Sweden).
Press photo can be accessed here.
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