Dreaming Suburbs Seminar
Mutual Infrastructures: Culture Supporting Cities, Cities Supporting Culture
Monday, September 15th, 2025 | 9:30 - 15:00
KYMP-talo Auditorium, Työpajankatu 8, 00580 Helsinki
Dreaming Suburbs (2024–2026) is an international collaboration at the intersection of art, activism, and urban planning. Co-funded by the EU Creative Europe programme, the project brings together Konsthall C, Konstfrämjandet Stockholm, Museum of Impossible Forms, Til Vægs, and FEMMA Planning.
Grounded in local neighbourhoods, Dreaming Suburbs challenges segregation policies and explores how art can act as a critical and generative force in shaping more just and sustainable urban futures. Through residencies, seminars, an exhibition, a festival, and a publication, the initiative connects artists, urbanists, activists, and residents to reimagine the social and spatial dynamics of our cities.
Its opening seminar, , considers the reciprocal relationship between cultural spaces and urban development in contexts shaped by segregation and renewal. Cultural organisations situated in neighbourhoods often work at the frontline of social cohesion: they counter stigmatising narratives, nurture community resilience, and create infrastructures for dialogue and collective imagination that urban planning alone cannot provide.
Cities hold responsibility for ensuring that these spaces are not displaced or instrumentalised, but supported through sustainable policies, secure infrastructures, and long-term recognition of their civic role. By bringing together cultural practitioners, residents, and urban policymakers, the seminar asks how we might build mutual infrastructures of care and accountability—so that both cities and cultural spaces can contribute to more just, equitable, and sustainable urban futures.
Speakers include Marie Finsten Jensen & Søren-Emil Schütt (AKK Almene Kunstklubber / Common Art Clubs, Denmark), Will Bradley (Kunsthall Oslo, Norway), and Ulrika Flink (Konstfrämjandet Stockholm, Sweden), Ahmed Al-Nawas, Sonya Lindfors, and H Ouramo, with additional participants to be announced.
The seminar is curated by Giovanna Esposito Yussif – Museum of Impossible Forms and supported by the EU Creative Europe programme, Creative Europe national co-financing from the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI), and the City of Helsinki’s Urban Environment Division.
Programme
9:30
Open doors + coffee/tea and snacks
10:00–12:00
Welcoming words and introduction
Giovanna Esposito Yussif, artistic director of Museum of Impossible Forms
Presentations
12:00–13:00
Lunch break
13:00–15:00
Panel and conversation
Culture Supporting Cities, Cities Supporting Culture
Featuring Ahmed Al-Nawas, Will Bradley, Ulrika Flink, Sonya Lindfors, and H Ouramo, with additional participants to be announced. Moderated by Wisam Elfadl & Giovanna Esposito Yussif.
KYMP-talo auditorium is an accessible venue.
The language for the seminar will be English.
AKK – Almene Kunstklubber (Common Art Clubs)
AKK organises new and established art clubs in public housing areas in Taastrup, Holstebro, Folehaven (Copenhagen), Helsingør, Gellerup (Aarhus), and Lundtoftegade (Copenhagen, Til Vægs). The art clubs serve more than 20,000 residents and actively create connections between the estates and the wider society.
AKK’s vision is to make public housing residents central actors in the Danish art scene. Unlike other initiatives, AKK brings not only art but also decision-making power and curatorial knowledge into housing estates. Reflecting the democratic organisation of public housing, AKK provides a shared resource for the clubs, consisting of artists, mentors, methods, and experiences, which grows as more initiatives join.
Public housing is home to one fifth of the Danish population and has historically collectivised and democratised large parts of the nation’s land and housing stock. Today, however, it is under political pressure. Since the 2018 bill One Denmark without Parallel Societies – No Ghettos in 2030 and related “ghetto laws,” housing estates have been labelled “holes in the map of Denmark” and “stone deserts with no connection to the surrounding community.”
Through AKK, artistic communities explore how culture can liberate residential areas from this discursive marginalisation, while also asking what art and its audiences might learn from traditions of collective organisation and social responsibility within public housing.
Marie Finsten Jensen, founder and leader of AKK – Almene Kunstklubber (CAC – Common Art Clubs)
Marie has worked at Danish art institutions such as Gammel Strand and Kunsthal 44 Møen. She holds a PhD from the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen, which deals with the art association structure. Marie thus has both a practical and scientific focus on the historical and current organization of contemporary art in Denmark.
Søren-Emil Schütt, founder and leader of AKK – Almene Kunstklubber (CAC – Common Art Clubs)
Søren-Emil founded Til Vægs in 2016, and today he is the editor-in-chief of the magazine Social Kritik and vice-chairman of the housing association AKB Copenhagen. In his practice, Søren-Emil has long focused on the intersection between the art world, social work and activism, as well as public housing policy and local organization. Søren-Emil works in various ways with public housing areas across the country.
Kunsthall Oslo
Kunsthall Oslo is a non-profit art space founded in 2010 and located in the Bjørvika area of central Oslo. The gallery presents a programme of international contemporary art, with an emphasis on new commissions and a parallel commitment to exploring the social and historical context of contemporary art production. We also run the youth project The Oslo Art and Knowledge Workshop and host Assata library and press. Kunsthall Oslo is currently run by Will Bradley, Ifrah Osman, Neslihan Ramzi and Øyvind Mellbye. Kunsthall Oslo has commissioned or presented projects by Damien Ajavon, Assemble, Azar Alsharif, Ragna Bley, Thomas Bliss, Chto Delat, Manthia Diawara, Jason Dodge, Marte Eknæs, Ida Ekblad, Mohammed Ali Fadlabi, Marthe Ramm Fortun, Luke Fowler, Lemi Ghariokwu, Wade Guyton, Elisabeth Haarr, Maria Hassabi, Holly Herndon, Lars Holdhus, Judith Hopf, Takashi Ito, Ilavenil Jayapalan, Jacqueline De Jong, Hassan Khan, Silke Otto-Knapp, Steinar Haga Kristensen, Ignas Krunglevicius, Joan La Barbara, Lars Laumann, Jumana Manna, Puce Mary, Gustav Metzger, Mercedes Mühleisen, Sandra Mujinga, Bahar Noorizadeh, Bill Orcutt, Trevor Paglen, Hariton Pushwagner, Yvonne Rainer, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Riar Rizaldi, Roedelius, Linder Sterling, Robel Temesgen, Sue Tompkins, Lesia Vasylchenko, Fredrik Værslev and Richard Wright among many others. The programme has also included many well-known 20th century artists including Omar Amiralay, Gerd Arntz, Siri Aurdal, Barbara Hammer, Asger Jorn, Käthe Kollwitz, Yayoi Kusama, Rammellzee, Robert Rauschenberg, Hannah Ryggen, Solvognen, Ettore Sottsass, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Dziga Vertov and Andy Warhol among many others.
Will Bradley
Along with Ifrah Osman, Neslihan Ramzi and Øyvind Mellbye, Will Bradley runs Kunsthall Oslo, a non-profit art space which opened in 2010. Bradley has been Guest Professor at the Staedelschule, Frankfurt (2007-8); Curator at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco (2005-7); Researcher in art and social change at Manchester Metropolitan University (2002-5); Co-founder and director of The Modern Institute, Glasgow (1997-2002); and a member of the Committee of Transmission Gallery, Glasgow (1994-96). He has been a regular feature writer for Frieze magazine, a contributor to the Nordic art journal Kunstkritikk, and a member of the editorial board of the journal Afterall, based in London. His books include "Art and Social Change: A Critical Reader", published by Tate, London in 2007, and "Self Organisation/Counter-Economic Strategies", co-edited with the artists' group Superflex and published by Lukas & Sternberg, New York in 2006. Aside from the Kunsthall Oslo programme he has organised many exhibitions and artists' projects including "Fragments of Machines" (2010) at IMO, Copenhagen and Neuer Aachener Kunstverein; "The mind of this death is unrelentingly awake" (2009) at the Office for Contemporary Art Oslo; "Forms of Resistance" (Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2007); "Radical Software" and “How To Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Again Two Days Later” (CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco, 2006); “My Head Is On Fire But My Heart Is Full Of Love” (2002), Charlottenborg, Copenhagen; “Pyramids of Mars” (2001), Barbican, London; “Community Cinema For A Quiet Intersection”, a solo project by Rirkrit Tiravanija in Glasgow (1999).
Ulrika Flink
Ulrika Flink is a curator and Artistic Director of Konstfrämjandet Stockholm. Her work includes projects such as Momentum 9 – The Nordic Biennial (2017), the Borås Biennial (2021), the Çanakkale Biennial (2024), the Swedish Pavilion at the Gwangju Biennale (2024), and the upcoming Bruges Triennial (2027). Operating across institutions, biennials, and public space, her curatorial practice centres on art’s ability to challenge dominant narratives and create space for reflection, encounter, and transformation.
Ahmed Al-Nawas
Ahmed Al-Nawas is a Helsinki-based artist and curator with a practice grounded in archival research and collaborative knowledge production. A graduate in visual culture from Aalto University, his collaborative projects with artist Minna Henriksson have been presented at the Helsinki Biennale, Serlachius Museum, Helsinki Art Museum (HAM), and Turku Art Museum. His works are also held in the Helsinki City Art Collection and the Finnish National Gallery.
He is co-founder of two interdisciplinary art spaces in Helsinki: Third Space and the Museum of Impossible Forms. Al-Nawas also works as project planner and community liaison at Stoa, a cultural centre run by the City of Helsinki.
Wisam Elfadl
Wisam Elfadl is a cultural producer and a board member of the Museum of Impossible Forms, whose work intersects art, cultural heritage, and social change. She currently works at the Finnish Museum of Photography, where she develops audience engagement and participatory practices that strengthen community and enhance the visibility of diversity. Elfadl has developed participatory methods that strengthen community resilience, support the agency of cultural minorities, and challenge segregation as well as stigmatizing narratives.
In her museum and archival work, Elfadl applies decolonial approaches that dismantle one-dimensional and exclusionary narratives. She advocates for applying these same approaches to urban planning and the built environment: how spaces can be designed and developed to reduce segregation, counter gentrification, and foster inclusivity. Elfadl asks: What concrete goals could be set to create urban spaces where diverse communities can see themselves reflected and feel a sense of belonging to a shared city and future?
Sonya Lindfors
Cameroonian-Finnish choreographer and artistic director Sonya Lindfors works across performance, community organising, facilitation, and education. She is the founder and Artistic Director of UrbanApa, an interdisciplinary, counter-hegemonic arts community offering platforms for feminist practices, workshops, labs, and festivals.
Her works — including One Drop (2023), Something Like This (2023), Common Moves (2023), Camouflage (2021), Cosmic Latte (2018), and We Should All Be Dreaming (2018) — explore Blackness, representation, speculative futurities, and decolonial dreaming. Lindfors has received multiple awards, including the International Live Art Anti Prize (2018) and the Finnish State Award for Public Information (2022). She was also part of the Miracle Workers Collective, which represented Finland at the 58th Venice Biennale.
H Ouramo
H Ouramo (they/them) is an artist and educator based in Helsinki. They are currently working as head of Art School Maa, an alternative art school and centre for learning in Helsinki with its focus on critical thinking, learning together and experimentation.
With Maa H is currently working on how to rethink and create structures around learning that centre mutual aid as an organisational and pedagogical praxis. They are committed to helping to sustain communities and creating pedagogies that afford and promote change. Their artistic work deals most often with finding the body and its labour in asymmetries of power, economies of extraction and in imagining things differently.
Founded in 1986 and located in Suomenlinna, Art School Maa emphasises interdisciplinarity and experimentation in contemporary arts education. Alongside visual arts, Maa’s teaching incorporates performance, sound art, and critical theory.
