Marking the 70th anniversary of the Pavilion of Finland, commissioner Frame Contemporary Art Finland will present Aeolian Suite by artist Jenna Sutela at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Stefanie Hessler, the presentation will be on view from 9th May to 22nd November, 2026.
Conceived as a multisensory installation inspired by the wind, Aeolian Suite transforms the Pavilion of Finland into an immersive windscape of sound and movement. The work is composed using meteorological data, musical instruments, and atmospheric currents drawn from Venice, Helsinki, and other locations, situating the pavilion within a broader planetary system of circulation and exchange.
At its core, the project explores the ambivalence of wind as an elemental force, intangible and unpredictable, yet deeply entangled in everyday life and human impact on the planet. Wind becomes both a metaphor and a material: a source of true randomness for computation, divination, and music, as well as a carrier of particles, microbes, seeds, and messages across borders.
In this elemental drama, the five Venetian winds will take center stage as protagonists, “singing” the weather. These characters, styled by hair artist Sara Mathiasson, embody identities shaped by shifting weather patterns and the growing volatility of the global climate.
The scenography, designed by Celeste Burlina, draws inspiration from Commedia dell’arte traveling theatre and reflects the history of Alvar and Elissa Aalto’s Pavilion of Finland, originally conceived in 1956 as a mobile structure. Vocal characterisation within the work is similarly informed by grammelot, the theatrical tradition of communicating without words through rhythm, tone, and gesture.
Aeolian Suite also engages with predictive processes such as environmental simulations and weather forecasting, developed in dialogue with scientists at the Institute of Marine Sciences CNR-ISMAR. Alongside scientific inquiry, the project embraces mystical and sensorial modes of understanding, including practices of deep listening. Acknowledging the impossibility of modeling a system from within without altering it, Sutela’s work proposes an alternative approach: tuning into the environment rather than attempting to control it.
The Pavilion of Finland will present Jenna Sutela’s exhibition Aeolian Suite at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia from 9th May until 22nd November, 2026. Find more information here.
