The project UOMA of the Finnish Institute in Madrid will continue in August in both Ii and Oulu with a residency and two exhibitions by the Spanish artist Lucía Loren. The programme also includes an artist talk with Loren and Johanna Pöykkö.
The exhibition and residency project UOMA of the Finnish Institute in Madrid is part of the Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture programme, bringing together artists and cultural actors from the Oulu2026 region and the Madrid municipality. Finnish artist Johanna Pöykkö spent the month of May at the ISLA residency in Robledo de Chavela, and in August it is her Spanish artist partner Lucía Loren´s turn to visit Finland.
Loren will be at the residency from the 1st to the 18th of August at the KulttuuriKauppila art centre and at Artbreak Air in Ii. During her residency, she will continue her collaboration with the textile and visual artist Johanna Pöykkö from Oulu, while getting to know other artists and cultural operators in the region.
During the residency, there will also be a few events with the artists open to the public, for example an artist talks with Loren and Pöykkö at KulttuuriKauppila on the 13th of August at 17:00. Loren´s work will also be on display in KulttuuriKauppila´s Showroom from the 13th to the 16th of August; her exhibition “Stitching Stories from the Soil” consists of photographs, drawings, and videos that trace a journey through various site-responsive projects Loren has carried out in recent years, where narratives calling for an ecological culture concerning the soil are woven together.
Pimento space of the Oulu Artists’ Association’s Oulu House of Fine Arts will show from the 20th of August to the 14th of September “Territory of Care“; the audiovisual works arise from the site-responsive proposals proposed by visual artist Lucía Loren and recorded by filmmaker Juanma Valentín. The Artists’ Association will organise a joint opening of the spaces on Tuesday, 19th of August at 17.00 (Pimento, Gallery 5 and Arttila).
Lucía Loren is a Madrid-based artist who is specialized in environmental art. Her research combines collaborative artistic practices and projects inspired by critical pedagogy, reflecting on socio-ecological themes from an ecofeminine perspective. Human-environment relations and the landscape shaped by them have been the main theme of her work during the last years. This connection with landscapes has inspired her interventions in numerous natural environments in Spain, Morocco, the United States, Italy, Andorra, Poland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Argentina and Western Sahara. Loren has exhibited her work in museums, cultural spaces and contemporary art centres such as Centro de Arte y Naturaleza CDAN (Huesca), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León MUSAC (León) and Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno IVAM (Valencia).
UOMA is a three-year project of the Finnish Institute in Madrid, which gives Finnish-Spanish artist couples the opportunity to explore each other’s home regions and work together during residencies. The residencies will be located in the Oulu2026 area and in the municipality of Madrid outside the cities; in 2025 in Ii and Robledo de Chavela. The project will also be visible in both cities: the Finnish artists will have exhibitions in the gallery of the Finnish Institute in Madrid and the results of the whole project will be presented in Oulu in 2026 and in Madrid in 2027. There will also be smaller events during the residencies in both countries.
The project partner (artist selection, residencies) in Madrid is the cultural association Hug Culture. In 2025 the residencies will be the ISLA project (Robledo de Chavela, Spain), Artbreak AiR and KulttuuriKauppila (Ii, Finland). The selection of the Finnish artist was carried out in cooperation with the Oulu Artists’ Association.
@proyecto.uoma
Oulu2026 | madrid.fi (The Finnish Institute in Madrid´s webpage)
EVENT DETAILS:
EXHIBITION at the KulttuuriKauppila Art Centre (Kauppilantie 15, Ii):
Wed-Sat 13.-16.8.; Wed-Fri from 12:00-18:00, Sat from 10:00-15:00
KulttuuriKauppila´s Showroom, Lucía Loren: “Stitching Stories from the Soil “
ARTIST TALK at the KulttuuriKauppila Art Centre (Kauppilantie 15, Ii):
Wed 13.8. at 17:00 Presentation of the artists of KulttuuriKauppila:
Madrid-based artist and activist Lucía Loren and Oulu-based textile and visual artist Johanna Pöykkö talk about their work.
*More information about the events at KulttuuriKauppila: Cultural Producer Katri Haapakoski, Art Centre KulttuuriKauppila, tel. +358408698601, katri.haapakoski@ii.fi
EXHIBITION Oulu Artists’ Association/Oulu House of Fine Arts (Hallituskatu 5, Oulu):
Pimento 20.8.-14.9. Lucía Loren & Juanma Valentín: “Territory of Care“; joint opening Tue 19.8. at 17:00 (Pimento, Gallery 5 and Arttila).
