Helsinki presents Sámi culture through art and everyday life in two exhibitions

Helsinki presents Sámi culture through art and everyday life in two exhibitions

Photographer: Maija Toivanen, HAM

In 2026, Helsinki is offering a unique opportunity to explore Sámi culture through two major exhibitions. We Who Remain opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma on 27 March, and an exhibition on the life of Sámi in Helsinki will open at the Helsinki City Museum in November. These exhibitions invite international visitors to discover Sámi identity, art and everyday life in an accessible urban setting.

Helsinki is one of the largest and most vibrant centres of Sámi life in Finland. The Sámi are the only officially recognised indigenous people within the European Union, with a history that stretches back thousands of years. Their traditional homeland, Sápmi, spans across northern Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia’s Kola Peninsula.

In Helsinki, Sámi language and culture are present in education, particularly in Pasila, where the southernmost Sámi-language class in Finland provides teaching in Northern Sámi language and culture from early childhood to school level. The teaching is based on Sámi values such as community, connection to nature, cultural identity and equality. In 2025, this context was complemented by artist Outi Pieski’s permanent public artwork ČSV áigi, curated by HAM Helsinki Art Museum and financed through the Percent for Art principle. The art work is installed in the same daycare and school building where Sámi-language education is provided, making Sámi culture visible in everyday environments. Its title refers to key aspects of Sámi identity, and the acronym ČSV is commonly understood as Čájet Sámi Vuoiŋŋa – “Show the Sámi spirit”.

For visitors, the two major Sámi exhibitions in Helsinki in 2026 offer a rare perspective and chance to encounter living Sámi culture beyond the Arctic region.

Kiasma: We Who Remain

Jointly presented by Kiasma and the Sámi Museum Siida, the exhibition We Who Remain brings together contemporary Sámi art from across the Sápmi territories of Finland, Sweden, and Norway. The exhibition opened at Kiasma on 27 March 2026 and runs until 6 September 2026.

The exhibition offers visitors an opportunity to experience Sámi culture through contemporary art – told from Sámi perspectives. Featuring more than twenty artists, the exhibition focuses primarily on works from the 2000s to the 2020s, while also including a selection of earlier pieces, the oldest dating to the 1970s. Together, they reflect a period in which Sámi society has strengthened its position in Nordic legislation and gained growing international recognition.

“Contrasts are ever-present in Sámi contemporary art. The works convey the sensitivity and emotional depth of Sámi life, while also revealing the forces that have hardened us and shaped us into survivors. For Sámi visitors, they reflect our community’s self-respect, joys and sorrows. For Finnish audiences, they offer distinctly Sámi perspectives on Sámi life,” says curator Petra Laiti.

Helsinki City Museum to present Sámi life in Helsinki

Opening in November 2026, a new exhibition at the Helsinki City Museum will explore what it means to live as a Sámi in a modern capital city, offering visitors an intimate look into their everyday life, identity and community in Helsinki. The exhibition reflects the Helsinki City Museum’s broader vision of promoting and highlighting the diversity of life in the city.

While Sámi life in Helsinki takes many forms, it is united by strong connections to family, Sámi languages and cultural heritage. The exhibition is curated by a Sámi curatorial team: Aimo Aikio, Laura Feodoroff, Helmi Hagelin and Mari Gauriloff.

The exhibition will be preceded by an innovative documentation project in which Sámi residents of Helsinki will produce materials themselves, either individually or in small groups. Participants will decide on the content, methods and archiving of the material. The project is being carried out in collaboration with Sámi organisations based in Helsinki.

The exhibition invites visitors to learn, reflect and encounter Sámi culture in new ways. It aims to increase awareness and appreciation, while addressing the lack of knowledge that still surrounds Europe’s only recognised indigenous people.