Forms of Presence / Tornio / 1.10. - 6.11.

Exhibition 1.10. – 6.11.2026
Mon-Fri 10 – 18, Sat-Sun 12 – 16

Forms of Presence

The Forms of Presence exhibition at Galleria Kortteeri is part of the public presentation of the results of the PMP project. During the four-year project, artists from Spain, Croatia, Malta, Finland, Italy, and Slovakia came together in workshops, networking events, and webinars. They collaborated on articles, a professional toolkit, and podcasts exploring what contemporary art means in Europe today and how European artists can work professionally in the current cultural landscape.

As part of the project, the artists were also tasked with creating a joint virtual exhibition inspired by the ideas and discussions generated through the project activities, alongside local physical exhibitions organized by each participating partner.

The exhibition brings together works by thirteen visual artists who took part in the artist group at Lapland University of Applied Sciences. The exhibition is also part of the Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture programme. The exhibition is curated by Venla Kakko, Curator at the Kemi Art Museum.

Artists

Rita Nissén (FI)

Multidisciplinary artist

Rita Nissén, born 1997, is a multidisciplinary artist. Nissen works in many different media, but mostly she paints and makes photo-based art. Lately she has been experimenting with making art using plants. As an artist, she considers art an extended form of thinking and gets inspired by nature, puns, and humanity.

Rita Nissén lives and works in Tornio. She graduated as a fine artist from Lapland University of Applied Sciences in 2024. Her work has been exhibited in several exhibitions in Finland.

IG: @rita.nissenn
www.ritanissen.fi

Noora Ylipieti (FI)

Multidisciplinary artist

Noora Ylipieti (MA), born 1981, is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily through painting, installation, site-specific art and community art. Her materials are often readymade objects she receives via donations and items sourced from recycling centers. Ylipieti’s work investigates the invisible forces that shape our shared and individual lives: mass, repetition, waste, and the numerical weight of things we often overlook.

The artist builds through accumulation, layering and acts of repetition so that the mundane becomes an allegory. She asks: how do our discarded things, the things so many touch and ignore, carry stories? In reclaiming materials destined for oblivion, she revives unseen histories, revealing how mass and number can be both oppressive and sublime. Since 2020 Ylipieti has been obsessed with a vampire character. In her series of images one can find connections with both pop art and the manifestations of the avant-garde in fine arts.

Ylipieti has held numerous exhibitions in Finland and abroad, some of the recents ones include Gallery Ars Libera, in Kuopio (2025), Kemi Art Museum (2024) and Rauma Art Museum (2023-2024). She also been part of many group exhibitions in Finland.

IG: @nooraylipieti
Portfolio: Noora Ylipieti
Vimeo:  Noora Y

Sari Sandberg (FI)

Visual artist

Sari Sandberg is a visual artist from Rovaniemi, living and working in Tromsø, Norway.  Her work weaves together the storytelling of photography, mixed media and the profound presence of northern nature. While her practice is rooted in photography, it expands into installations, video works and soundscapes creating immersive and multisensory environments. Her work also engages with broader societal themes, including environmental change and questions, that shape human experience.

IG: @sarisandberg
www.sarisandberg.com

Essi Korva (FI)

Sculptor

Artist Essi Korva, born 1985, graduated from the Lahti University of Applied Sciences Institute of Design and Fine Arts in 2010. Her Sculptures are often based on her subjective experiences of the world. They often deal with fear, childhood, loneliness and emptiness, for which the rugged beauty of Lapland offers an excellent setting.

She works with variety of materials, wood, cement, plaster, hair, clay or whatever she might find useful. She has attended several environmental art happenings in Finland and abroad.  At the end the material itself is not too important, but the emotions she’s trying to capture. Her sculptures are portraits of feelings.

IG: @essikorva
www.essikorva.com

Arttu Nieminen (FI)

Media artist

Arttu Nieminen is a media artist based in Rovaniemi. His works often originate from forms that play with symmetry and the horizon, the fragile Arctic nature, and juxtapositions that resemble omens and visions in relation to contemporary phenomena. Flowing nature imagery, poetic narration, minimalist music, and brutal montage that fractures the overall composition form the cornerstones of his expression.

His video art breathes in museums, galleries, and cinemas, but also at events in the form of installations and architectural projections. At events and festivals, he creates video installations and engages in artistic collaborations in which media art collides with performance, choreography, poetry, and music. Environmental issues and the contradictory relationship between humans and nature are recurring themes in Nieminen’s work.

Veera Neva (FI)

Artist

Veera Neva is a Kuusamo-born, Tampere-based multi-instrumentalist and composer. Her music combines elements of ambient, electroacoustic and contemporary music, polyphonic vocal music, sound art, cinematic music, and folk traditions. Using her voice, saxophone, synthesizers, loopers, effects, and field recordings, she creates ethereal layers and dreamlike spaces for the listener. Her artistic work also extends to video art, short films, and multidisciplinary performances.

Harri Kuusijärvi (FI)

Artist

Harri Kuusijärvi is an accordionist and composer based in Rovaniemi. Originally from Finnish Lapland, he is known for expanding the expressive possibilities of the accordion through improvisation, electronics, and bold sonic environments. With a background in contemporary classical music, his work moves between contemporary jazz, electroacoustic music, and influences from different musical traditions. He works as a soloist, composer, and collaborator across contemporary music, jazz, folk, popular music, and theatre.

Unna Prittinen (FI)

Visual artist

Unna Prittinen is a visual artist from northern Finland. In 2022 she graduated from Lapland UAS with a Bachelor of Culture and Arts degree in Fine Arts. Since then she has been working with video art and watercolor painting as her main mediums. Her work often revolves around themes of perception, identity and how they affect our experiences. She draws inspiration from science and philosophy, and wishes to incorporate ideas from different fields into her artistic practice.

IG:@priunna

Piia Lieste (FI/)

Visual artist

Piia Lieste is a Finnish visual artist working primarily with clay and ceramics. Her practice explores material agency, transformation and the relationships between humans and the more-than-human world. Working with clay and site-responsive processes, she creates sculptures and installations that engage with water, soil, time and ecological change. Her works often invite materials to become active participants in the artistic process.

IG: @piia.lieste
www.piialieste.com

Ezgi Tanriverdi (TU/FI)

Mixed media artist and illustrator

Ezgi Tanriverdi works between illustration, visual art and textile sculpture. Is is currently based in Finland and has a Master’s degree in Visual Art from Lapland University and Izmir University (Turkey). In her illustrations, she mainly uses ink and acrylic paint. Ezgi also creates soft sculptures with various fibre and fabric materials.

Her works involve themes of uncanny, perception of reality and unconscious mind. In her works, she inspects the place where reality and the unworldly fuse together. It’s a place but not a specific one. It’s changing, moving and flowing. Her work carries a sense of storytelling. It depicts narratives of some things and territories that aching to evoke eerie, unsettling and curious homely feelings.

IG: @ezgitanstudio
www.ezgitanstudio.com

Heta Kasurinen (FI)

Visual artist & graphic designer

Heta Kasurinen, born 1991, is a visual artist and graphic designer from Kouvola, currently based and working in Helsinki. She holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Lapland (2017). Her work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and she has studied and participated in artist residencies both in Finland and internationally including Russia and Benin. Most recently, her work was exhibited at Taidekeskus Salmela in the summer of 2026.

Kasurinen works primarily with painting, depicting environments in which people live their everyday lives. She is particularly interested in built environments, urban spaces, and landscapes, as well as what they reveal about a place, its culture, and its people. Her artistic practice is rooted in cultural questions, exploring how histories, ways of life, and values are reflected in the environments people inhabit.

IG: @hetakasurinenart
www.hetakasurinen.com

List of artworks

Coming soon.