The project UOMA of the Finnish Cultural Institute in Madrid continues in February with a residency visit by Oulu-based artist Liina Holmes, who will hold her Somnia exhibition at the institute and begin collaborating with her Spanish artist partner.
The exhibition and residency project UOMA of the Finnish Cultural Institute in Madrid is part of the Oulu2026 Capital of Culture programme, bringing together artists and cultural actors from the Oulu2026 region and the Madrid municipality. During the European Capital of Culture year 2026, UOMA will send a new pair of artists to residencies to each other’s home countries and present the results of the entire three-year project in Oulu.
In February, the Finnish artist Liina Holmes will travel to Madrid, where she will hold her Somnia exhibition at the gallery of the Finnish Institute in Madrid during 19.–27.2.2026. The exhibition offers a dreamlike view of an imaginary world set in the space between the Earth and the Moon in a distant future, where familiar natural forms are transformed into new entities. Somnia features the video works Marenectaris: Beneath the frozen surface of a lunar lake (2024) and Flora Borealis (2025), as well as a series of watercolor paintings and a spatial soundscape. All video works contain only self-produced video material without the use of artificial intelligence.
After the exhibition opening, Holmes will head to Collado Villalba in Madrid for a two-week residency, during which she will begin collaborating with her local artist partner Miguel Álvarez-Fernández. During the residency, Holmes will get to know other artists and cultural actors in the area with the help of the institute and her artist partner. Holmes and Álvarez-Fernández will collaborate on a joint work, with Holmes responsible for the moving image and Álvarez-Fernández for the sound.
Liina Holmes is an Afro-Finnish multidisciplinary artist whose work encompasses painting, illustration, graphic design, and video art. Her artistic journey has been influenced by a variety of geographical and cultural environments. Holmes’ art explores a melancholic attitude towards life and a deep and dark range of emotions. Darker themes are often accompanied by an exploration of a wide range of colours and textures.
Miguel Álvarez-Fernández is a Spanish composer, sound artist, and researcher working at the intersection of music, technology, and sound art. Álvarez-Fernández’s multidisciplinary approach has brought him into collaboration with numerous prestigious cultural centres, festivals, and artists around the world. He has worked at, among others, the Reina Sofía Museum and the Instituto Cervantes, and since 2008 he has directed the Ars Sonora radio program on Radio Clásica (RNE).
UOMA is a three-year project of the Finnish Cultural 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 in the Oulu2026 area and in the municipality of Madrid outside the cities. The project will also be visible in both cities: the Finnish artists will have exhibitions in the gallery of the Finnish Cultural Institute in Madrid and the results of the whole project will be presented in Oulu in 2026 and in Madrid in 2027.
In August 2026, the final exhibition of the project will be displayed at Galleria MABD, and the joint work by Holmes and Álvarez-Fernández will also be in the programme of the Oulu Music Video Festival. There will also be smaller events during the residencies in both countries. Previous artist pairs were Antti J. Leinonen and Miguel Sbastida in 2024, and Johanna Pöykkö and Lucía Loren in 2025. The project’s partner (artist selection, residencies) in Madrid is the cultural association Hug Culture.
@proyecto.uoma (Instagram)
Oulu2026 | madrid.fi (The Finnish Institute in Madrid´s webpage)
EVENT DETAILS FEBRUARY 2026:
LIINA HOLMES: SOMNIA, exhibition at the Finnish Cultural Institute in Madrid, 19.–27.2.2026. Opening event 19.2. 18:00–20:00; exhibition open Tue–Fri 10:00–18:00.
