10.9. — 1.11.2026

MUU Window

Välimerenkatu 15, Jätkäsaari, 00180 Helsinki
(link: map)

Open 24h

The exhibition opening will take place on Thursday 10 September 2026 from 5 pm to 6 pm at the window exhibition space on the corner of Välimerenkatu and Messitytönkuja streets.

The celebration will continue in the building’s club room and rooftop terrace until 8 pm.

Opening speech: member of MUU’s Board, Tuuli Malla Manninen.

Welcome!

The sculptures in this exhibition highlight elements of Chydenius research into safer space club culture and queer nightlife. The rigid square shapes reference heteropatriarchal norms that seek to control and contain people who challenge said norms, while simultaneously suggesting the outlines of a protected space for safety, community, and self-expression. The light inside the sculptures acts as a metaphor for the joy and empowerment created within nightclubs. As the light escapes the square’s boundaries, it symbolically challenges the limits imposed by oppressive structures.

Isabella Chydenius is a Finnish interdisciplinary artist based in Berlin, working between Berlin, Helsinki and Cape Town. Chydenius’ practice explores the night and underground nightclub culture as spaces of togetherness, momentary freedom and joy away from the heteropatriarchal square norms of the day. In her artistic research she explores the history of queer and underground nightclubs as sites of resistance and draws attention to how they may serve as a catalyst for change in society through the dialogue between activists, artists and socio-political movements. She is interested in the club space as a metaphor and abject, and approaches them as small microcosms within larger society. The research is further interpreted in her conceptual art practice through mediums such as light, video, sound, cast glass, text, photography, ripped clothes, and found objects to create sculptures and immersive installations.