As part of the 61st International Art Exhbition, La Biennale di Venezia, Aeolian Suite by Jenna Sutela premieres at the Finnish Pavilion, designed by Alvar and Elissa Aalto.
The presentation coincides with the Pavilion of Finland’s 70th anniversary and is commissioned and produced by Frame Contemporary Art Finland. The installation features 70 meters of Time Recycled by Aggebo & Henriksen.

Aeolian Suite by Jenna Sutela, curated by Stefanie Hessler, Director of Swiss Institute in New York, transforms the Pavilion of Finland into an immersive soundscape that animates the elemental forces of Venetian winds to explore their environmental, cultural, and emotional dimensions. The exhibition features five sonic-kinetic sculptures installed in a circle, like a medieval wind rose diagram. The sculptures are covered in soft, fuzzy wigs that reference the wind muffs used on microphones. Here, instead of blocking out wind sounds, they become vessels for it, channelling the whispers and songs of wind while inviting us to reflect on what we consider noise and how we relate to our natural and cultural environment. 

The scenography, designed by Celeste Burlina, is set in the spirit of Commedia dell’arte travelling theatre and reflects the history of Alvar and Elissa Aalto’s pavilion from 1956, which was originally intended as a mobile construction.

Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture is the main partner of the exhibition. Aeolian Suite by Jenna Sutela will travel to Oulu Art Museum in Spring 2027.

Finnish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
Giardini
Venice 30122
Italy

9 May – 22 November

Summer hours, from 9 May to 27 September
11 am - 7 pm

Autumn hours, from 29 September to 22 November
10 am - 6 pm

About Jenna Sutela

Jenna Sutela’s ‘living sculptures’, image, and sound works explore open systems in biology, computation, and language. Sutela graduated from University of Art & Design Helsinki (now Aalto University) in the late 2000s. Originally from Turku, Finland, Sutela is now based in Berlin.

Her work has been presented internationally, including at the Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2025); Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève (2024); Swiss Institute, New York (2023); Helsinki Biennale (2023); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2022); Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (2022); Shanghai Biennial (2021); Liverpool Biennial (2021); Kunsthall Trondheim (2020); Serpentine Galleries, London (2019); and Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2019). She has been a visiting artist at La Becque, MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology, Somerset House Studios, and Callie’s Berlin. She is a Jane Lombard Fellow at The New School.

About Stefanie Hessler

Stefanie Hessler is a curator, writer, editor, and the director of Swiss Institute (SI). She has worked with over 300 artists, 50 organizations, and dozens of researchers across all continents. Originally from Germany, she has worked as a curator across exhibitions and biennales from Athens to São Paulo, Kochi to Montreal, Trondheim to Berlin. She has worked with some of the biggest artists of today, including Joan Jonas, Tomas Saraceno, and Christine Sun Kim as well as nurtured careers of emerging artists who are currently having their big break, such as Lap-See Lam, Ali Cherri, and Raven Chacon.

In addition to her role at Swiss Institute, Hessler is the curator of Parcours at Art Basel in Basel, and co-curator of the 2026 Counterpublic Triennial in St. Louis. Previously Hessler served as the Director of Kunsthall Trondheim in Norway. Her selected projects as an independent curator include the 17th Momenta Biennale: Sensing Nature, Montreal; Rising Tides/Down to Earth, Gropius Bau, Berlin; Joan Jonas: Moving Off the Land II, Ocean Space, Venice; the symposium Practices of Attention, 33rd Bienal de São Paulo; and the 6th Athens Biennale. Hessler is the author of Prospecting Ocean (MIT Press) and has edited over a dozen volumes.

About Frame Contemporary Art Finland

Frame Contemporary Art Finland, an advocate for Finnish contemporary art, has served as the commissioner of the Aalto Pavilion of Finland since 2013. Frame supports international initiatives and fosters professional exchange, encouraging the critical development of the field through grants, a visitor programme, curator residencies, seminars and talks, exhibition collaborations, and network platforms. 2026 marks the Aalto Pavilion of Finland’s 70th anniversary.