23.5.–15.6.2025

Humanism is dead – What then?

A new exhibition titled Garden of Curiosities by Lilli Haapala in Galleria Sculptor’s Studio space explores some of the most present key questions of our time: human identity, our relationship with nature, and the future. The exhibition consists of installations built into pools of water, featuring plants, ceramics, and silicone, animated by air pumps. While the works celebrate the beauty of nature and life itself, they also highlight humanity’s megalomaniacal directions of development and their darker consequences. What happens to humanity when the boundaries between biology, technology, and consciousness begin to blur?

Haapala is interested in natural sciences, mythology, and gardens, whose research also serves as a source for her works. Her works reference art history, laboratories, and natural science museums, inviting viewers into a temporal play that explores the nature of humanity and what lies beyond it.

The garden may also be seen as a metaphor for societal structures, which require constant maintenance and are guided into specific forms. Western utopian thinking often seems to aim at detaching from nature — towards new planets and an ever more perfected Homo sapiens. Alongside humanism, concepts such as transhumanism, which seeks to improve humans through technology, and posthumanism, which seeks a deeper connection with non-human nature instead of human-centered thinking, have emerged. The human of the future may take on forms we cannot yet fully imagine. As technological development continues, it carries the potential to profoundly reshape our relationship with nature. Even so, the possibility of rethinking our direction — and perhaps choosing a different path — still remains.

The exhibition has been supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland and Turku Art Society. Haapala’s artistic work is supported by Turku City and Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

Lilli Haapala (b. 1984) works across disciplines, using video, sculpture, and installation. Her art examines the human relationship with nature, often linking water and plant life. In recent years, her works have dealt with social themes, such as utopias and the evolving human-nature relationship. Haapala holds an MA in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki (2017) and a BA from the Turku Arts Academy (2015). In 2018, she received the Young Artist Promise Award from the Merita Art Foundation. Her works are included in, among others, the Finnish State Art Collection.