Featured Events in Helsinki in June 2025 (July Updated)

The 3rd Helsinki Biennial will present works by around 35 artists and art collectives at three different venues: Vallisaari Island, Esplanade Park and the Helsinki Art Museum. This year's Biennale is co-curated by Blanca de la Torre and Kati Kivinen. With the title "Refuge: Below and Beyond, Becoming and Belonging", the two main curators try to go beyond the human-centered perspective and focus on non-human roles such as plants, animals, fungi, chemical elements and minerals. And explore alternative ways of collecting and disseminating knowledge about the world. The theme of this Biennale is inspired by the natural habitat of the Rampart Island, whose rich ecosystem has been well preserved due to decades of inaccessibility. This undisturbed haven provides a rare opportunity for thinking - to imagine what happens when humans retreat behind the scenes and non-human actors take the lead.

Marjatta Tapiola often takes inspiration for her paintings from literature, from sources such as the Greek Minotaur myth or the work of the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. Rather than depicting these venerable literary sources literally, she uses them as a vehicle for dealing with themes such as the brutality of life and what it means to be human, exploring emotions, hopes and experiences familiar to everyone. The exhibition provides a review of Tapiola’s recent oil paintings and works on paper, this time drawing inspiration from selected extracts of poetry by the German-born writer W.G. Sebald (1944-2001) and Autobiography of Red (1998) by the Canadian novelist Anne Carson (b. 1950). Foremost among Tapiola’s sources of literary inspiration are the epic myths of Metamorphoses originally published in Latin by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BCE-18 CE). The classic magnum opus is said to contain almost everything ever written in subsequent literature.

Iron Maiden Helsinki is set to electrify the city of Helsinki on June 16, 2025, at the iconic Olympic Stadium. This highly anticipated event promises an unforgettable evening of legendary heavy metal, with Iron Maiden delivering a powerhouse performance that fans will not want to miss. As the clock strikes 17:00, the stadium will come alive with the thunderous sounds of one of the most influential bands in rock history. Tickets are priced at 179 USD, offering a chance to witness a spectacular show in a venue renowned for its grandeur and acoustics. Situated in the heart of Helsinki, the Olympic Stadium provides an ideal backdrop for this monumental concert, ensuring an experience that resonates long after the final encore. Iron Maiden Helsinki is more than just a concert; it is a celebration of music, culture, and the enduring legacy of a band that has shaped the genre for decades.

Charles Sandison’s new installation Tabula Rasa depicts words spilling out of open, empty books and moving towards each other in a continuous stream. The title refers to philosopher John Locke’s theory that humans begin life as a ‘blank slate’ onto which experiences and meanings are gradually imprinted. In Sandison’s Tabula Rasa, the blank slate is an ideological battlefield pitting words against each other as they compete to fill the empty pages.