Open Call 2027: This is New!
Oksasenkatu 11 Gallery Open Call for 2027
THEME: This is New!
Open for applications: 22 April – 31 May 2026
What is new? Novelty has been sold to us many times over: as advertising slogans, technological promises, updates, upgraded versions, and new-season fashion crazes. Novelty wears out in our hands before we have even had the chance to admire it — disposable, replaceable, and already obsolete at the very moment it is new. And yet, we are drawn by a persistent desire for the new.
Standing at the frontline, the horizon is always unclear. We only know that something is unravelling. Systems are breaking down, what was assumed certain is crumbling, and comprehensive solutions feel impossible. When answers are not to be found, the strength of art to wonder, to pose questions, and to unsettle assumptions comes to the fore.
The history of the avant-garde is also a story of how the new is absorbed by the old — how rebellion becomes institutionalised, how revolution is sold in design stores. Is anything truly new? Has everything already been seen, tried, recycled — and yet something changes, something shifts, something happens for the first time? The appeal of novelty is contradictory: it promises freedom, but more often than not we simply move from one cage to another.
This open call is not in search of utopias. We are looking instead for works and processes that dare to position themselves at the edge of uncertainty without redemption — not comforting answers, but beginnings. Something that might feel new for a long time, rather than merely fleetingly.
The 2027 theme of Oksasenkatu 11 Gallery is "This is New!"
Through this open call we are seeking artists, artist groups, and curated exhibition and performance programmes for the Oksasenkatu 11 Gallery programme in Töölö, Helsinki, for seven months in 2027. We are looking for individual artists, artist groups, and curators. Curator applicants are required to submit an exhibition plan or concept describing how the theme is reflected in the exhibition's process and working methods. We encourage artists to engage in new forms of collaboration — to experiment with new working methods alongside new partners and across disciplines.
We are primarily looking for exhibitions that occupy the entire space, but please indicate in your application if the work can be realised in only the upper or lower floor, or as part of a group exhibition. Oksasenkatu 11 Gallery offers exhibition and/or performance space in 2027 during the months of May, June, July, September, October, November, and December. Please indicate all suitable months in your application. All Open Call applicants will be notified of artist and curator selections by 18 June 2026 at the latest. Each programme will be realised within the selected month. Artists may decide for themselves the duration of the installation period and opening hours within the selected month.
The open call is curated by Jenna Jauhiainen, Joonas Pulkkinen, and Julius Valve. Selection decisions are made collectively by the curatorial team. We want to enable experimentation and an enquiring relationship to practice: space for mistakes, sharing, play, incompleteness, working with time, and new kinds of processes.
The space offers / Technical information
Three sculpture plinths
Two video projectors
Two pairs of active speakers (KRK Rokit & Genelec)
Three media players, one of which (BrightSign) can play two media streams simultaneously
Rail-mounted spotlights and individual LED luminaires
Trade fair carpeting and black Molton curtains surrounding the walls of the lower floor space
Basic tools
The space is adaptable: walls may be painted, walls and ceiling may be drilled into
Accessibility
Unfortunately the space is not fully accessible. The entrance has a 3 cm threshold followed by four steps without a ramp. The front door is 85 cm wide. The lower floor space is accessible only via steep spiral stairs. There is no lift, and there is a small, non-accessible toilet at street level.
Application materials and attachments
We welcome concise applications. Please title your email and attachment OC_2027_your name/group name. All materials (application, CV) are to be submitted as a single PDF file (max. 20 MB) to: galleria.oksasenkatu11@gmail.com