The Summer Artist for Seinäjoki City has been chosen!
Emmi Kairenius (b. 1993, Sammatti) is the ninth Summer Artist of the City of Seinäjoki. This year’s working period is 2.6. – 3.8.2025. During the summer, Emmi Kairenius will carry out an art project in which she works as the official professional playmaker of the City of Seinäjoki. In this role, she explores possibilities of the play in Seinäjoki’s built environment through embodied participation—by engaging in playful interaction with the city’s structures and elements. For Kairenius, play is a way to perceive everyday surroundings in a new light and to test alternative ways of experiencing places. She invites the local community to take part in experimental play through open-to-all excursions into the built environment. In July, the Department of Urban Play, maintained by Kairenius, will open at Kalevan Navetta. The Department provides the latest play tips for various city sites and other consultancy toward experimental play. Throughout the summer, the professional playmaker can be encountered not only at the Department of Urban Play at Kalevan Navetta’s summer events, but also around the city in everyday environments.
Emmi Kairenius
Emmi Kairenius (b. 1993, Sammatti) is a visual artist based in Rovaniemi, Finland. Through her artistic practice, Kairenius explores the daily urban environment and public space. Her work is characterized by embodied and repetitive engagement with the surroundings—through observation of change, collecting found objects, and playfully interacting with elements of the city. Her works are public performative processes that at times take the form of video, photography, or installation. Kairenius earned her Master of Arts degree from the University of Lapland in 2024 and is currently pursuing doctoral studies in art. She has participated in exhibitions and, alongside working in gallery contexts, has been actively engaged in process-based art situated in urban environments.
About the Summer Artist
Each summer since 2017, City of Seinäjoki has hired a visual artist or visual art student to work as the Summer Artist. The Summer Artist, “Kesäkuvataiteilija” in Finnish, works for two months with their own independent artistic project. The idea is to create something that is visible to the local community or has participatory elements. The Summer Artist works at the Kunsthalle Seinäjoki and has the resources and support of the team and the Cultural Services of Seinäjoki. The theme of the project is different each year but there is always a strong emphasis on participatory and process-based work-methods and temporary public art.
Previous Summer Artists:
Henri Airo 2024
Baran Caginli 2023
Olivia Viitakangas 2022
Riikka Gröndahl 2021
Sofi Häkkinen 2020
Aeon Lux 2019
Eetu Kevarinmäki 2018
Julia Kukkonen 2017
Follow the project and artist:
Follow the Summer Artist in social media channels on Facebook and Instagram during the summer. On the channel you can also access projects realized by Summer Artists from previous years. In addition, Kunsthalle Seinäjoki and City of Seinäjoki will share news about the Summer Artist in their own social media channels.
Summer Artist: https://www.seinajoentaidehalli.fi/en/projects/
Instagram: @kesakuvataiteilija
Website: https://www.instagram.com/emmikairenius/
Download press photos: Press photos
More information: Pii Anttila, Art Producer, Kunsthalle Seinäjoki, pii.anttila@seinajoki.fi, tel. +358 44 425 5823
