Finlandia Foundation National Grant Helps Bring Finnish Contemporary Art to Pioneer Works
Written By:
Minea Herwitz
A major new exhibition by Finnish artist Tuomas A. Laitinen opens this September in Brooklyn, supported in part by a Finlandia Foundation National grant.
From September 12 through November 22, 2026, Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, New York, will present Siphon, an ambitious multimedia installation by Helsinki-based artist Tuomas A. Laitinen. More than a decade in the making, the exhibition brings together contemporary art, neuroscience, ecology, sound, and sculpture in an immersive exploration of octopus intelligence, sleep, and consciousness.
Produced by the Helsinki-based arts organization PALO in collaboration with the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Japan, Siphon features immersive video, blown-glass sculptures, and a spatial audio installation that invites visitors to consider new ways of perceiving intelligence, the natural world, and our place within it.
Finlandia Foundation National is proud to have supported this remarkable project through one of its grants.
As the exhibition approaches its opening, Stéphane Querrec, Founder and Director of PALO, reflected on the collaboration and the role of Finlandia Foundation National in helping the project reach an international audience.
“We are especially grateful for your commitment, and for the role Finlandia Foundation National has played in strengthening cultural connections between Finland and the United States. Your support has helped create an opportunity for Finnish contemporary art to reach new audiences and become part of an international dialogue.”
Querrec also noted that while visitors will experience the exhibition itself, Siphon represents something much larger:
“Meaningful international collaborations are built over time. While the exhibition is the visible outcome, it also represents years of international groundwork: developing relationships, building institutional trust, and creating the conditions for ambitious artistic ideas to flourish across borders.”
Those words capture exactly why Finlandia Foundation National invests in the arts. Our grants help artists move beyond ideas and into realization—creating opportunities for Finnish and Finnish-American artists to share their work, build international partnerships, and enrich cultural dialogue between Finland and the United States.
We congratulate Tuomas A. Laitinen, PALO, and all of the collaborators who helped bring Siphon to life, and we look forward to seeing audiences experience this extraordinary exhibition.
Siphon
September 12 – November 22, 2026
Pioneer Works
Brooklyn, New York
Congratulations to everyone involved in this remarkable achievement. We are honored to have played a small part in bringing this visionary project to life.