The Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art has curated a media art exhibition from the collection of the Finnish National Gallery for the Oulu2026 programme. Entitled Earworm – Media Art from Kiasma, the exhibition opens at Oulu City Hall on 15 January 2026. The exhibition is suitable for all ages and, free of charge and accessible.
Earworm – Media Art from Kiasma presents a selection of video works in which music and sound are integral to the atmosphere and narrative. The video works spread out into the space through sound, making the experience multi-sensory.
“The special expressive power of sound is reflected in the brain’s ability to make music play in the head as an earworm. “You may also catch earworms in this exhibition, which luckily only contains good songs”, says curator Saara Karhunen.
The exhibition, curated from the collection of the Finnish National Gallery, features works by Mika Taanila, Pipilotti Risti, Raakel Kuukka, Dora Dalila Cheff, Otto Byström and Jaakko Pietiläinen. Spanning different decades, the works highlight the close relationship between media art and the technologies and digital culture of their time, including the Internet, television, pop music and video games.
The works in the exhibition are part of the collection of the National Gallery. The National Gallery is the largest museum of fine arts in Finland, with a collection of approximately 43,400 artworks. The collection builds both the history of Finland and the history of art for future generations. The National Gallery operates three of Finland’s most famous museums, the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, the Ateneum Art Museum and the Sinebrychoff Art Museum. Since the 1990s, Kiasma has been responsible for the development of the National Gallery’s media art collection.
The curator of the exhibition, Saara Karhunen, is an art historian who works at Kiasma with the collection of the Finnish National Gallery. Karhunen’s roots are in Kainuu, where she likes to spend her time, especially in her father’s hometown of Puolanka.
Ekho Collective’s work, Layers in the Peace Machine, will also be on display at Oulu City Hall for 2026. Admission to both exhibitions is free. Bookings for visits will be available from 1 December 2025.
