Finland: Aeolian Suite

Curated by Stefanie Hessler, Aeolian Suite unfolds as a multisensory environment, transforming the pavilion into a windscape of sound and movement. The artwork is composed using meteorological data, musical instruments (such as a clothesline, wind machines, and a children's woodwinds orchestra), and the winds from Venice, Helsinki, and beyond. Aeolian Suite explores the ambivalence of the wind—an atmospheric presence that is intangible and unpredictable. Wind transcends earthbound logic while simultaneously being entangled in our lives and a mirror to our planetary impact. It acts as a source of true randomness for computation, divination, and music, and as a carrier of particles, microbes, seeds, and messages. In this elemental drama set in the Pavilion of Finland, the five Venetian winds—Tramontana, two different Boras, Scirocco, and Garbin—become central protagonists, singing the weather while acting as guides for listening. The characters, styled with hair artist Sara Mathiasson, take on identities inspired by the shifting weather patterns. By personifying the atmospheric forces that shape Venice and the increasingly volatile global climate, the work addresses environmental questions from the mundane to the existential. The scenography, designed by Celeste Burlina, is set in the spirit of Commedia dell'arte traveling theatre and reflects the history of Alvar and Elissa Aalto's pavilion from 1956, which was originally intended as a mobile construction. Likewise, the vocal characterization is inspired by grammelot, the art of speaking without words from the same theater tradition, communicating instead through rhythm, tone, and gesture. Aeolian Suite studies predictive processes, like environmental simulations and weather forecasting, in discussion with scientists at the Institute of Marine Sciences CNR-ISMAR. Simultaneously, it explores mystical and sensorial ways of knowing, like the practice of deep listening. While acknowledging that it is impossible to model a system from within without changing it, the work aims to take a different approach by tuning into the environment.