The UOMA project launches in May in Madrid. From May 8–29, textile artist Johanna Pöykkö presents her exhibition Pilvilinnoja at the gallery of the Finnish Institute in Madrid and spends three weeks at the ISLA residency in Robledo de Chavela.
The UOMA exhibition and residency project, organized by the Finnish Cultural Institute in Madrid, is part of the official program of Oulu2026, the European Capital of Culture. The project connects artists and cultural professionals from the Oulu2026 region in Finland with those from the municipality of Madrid.
The selected Finnish artist for 2025 is Johanna Pöykkö, a visual and textile artist from Oulu. In May, Pöykkö will spend a month working in Madrid and Robledo de Chavela, collaborating with her Spanish artistic partner, Lucía Loren. In Robledo, she will take part in a residency organized by the ISLA project (Ideario de Sostenibilidad & Laboratorio de Arte), which focuses on sustainable art practices.
Additonally, Pöykkö will bring her exhibition Pilvilinnoja – Unessa kaikki oli hyvin (eng. Castles in the Air – In Dreams, All Was Well) to Madrid. Opening on May 8, 2025, the exhibition will be on display in the gallery of the Finnish Cultural Institute in Madrid until May 29. The exhibition features five textile sculptures made from cotton bedsheets — a material that has long held a central role in Pöykkö’s artistic work. The pieces shift between two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms, exploring the fragile nature of memories and dreams that seem to fade just as one wakes up. Pöykkö transforms these dreamlike images and recollections into sculptural textile works, inviting viewers to pause, reflect, and interpret. Each artwork resembles a cloud in constant transformation, offering space for personal meanings to emerge.
For many years, Pöykkö has worked with cotton bedsheets as both material and medium, using it to convey knowledge and memory through techniques such as screen printing, painting, cutting, and sewing. Her textile-based installations and sculptures create immersive spatial experiences through overlapping colors, light, and shadow. Her works have been exhibited in institutions including the art museums of Oulu, Kemi, and Jyväskylä, the Finnish Museum of Crafts, and in galleries across Finland.
UOMA is a three-year initiative by the Finnish Institute in Madrid that brings together Finnish and Spanish artist pairs through residency exchanges, allowing them to explore each other’s local environments and collaborate creatively. The residencies are located outside urban centers—in the Oulu2026 region in Finland and across the municipality of Madrid, outside the capital itself. In 2025, they will take place in Ii (Finland) and Robledo de Chavela (Spain). In addition, the project includes public exhibitions: each year’s Finnish artist will exhibit at the Institute’s gallery in Madrid, and the outcomes of the full project will be presented in 2026 in Oulu and in 2027 in Madrid.
The project’s Madrid-based partner for artist selection and residencies is the cultural association Hug Culture. In 2025, the participating residencies are ISLA (Robledo de Chavela, Spain), Artbreak AiR, and KulttuuriKauppila (Ii, Finland). The Finnish artist selection was carried out in collaboration with the Oulu Artists’ Association (Oulun Taiteilijaseura).
More information about the UOMA project and its collaborators in Madrid:
@proyecto.uoma
@institutofinlandia
Oulu2026 | madrid.fi (Finnish Cultural Institute in Madrid)
Hug culture – Hug Culture, @hugculture
Isla, @isla_redes
Exhibition at the Gallery of the Finnish Cultural Institute in Madrid:
Pilvilinnoja – Unessa kaikki oli hyvin (Castles in the Air – In Dreams, All Was Well)
May 9–29, 2025, Tue–Fri from 10:00 to 18:00
Opening: May 8, 18:00–20:00
Finnish Cultural Institute in Madrid
Calle San Agustín 7, 28014 Madrid
