8. – 23.5.2026

Opening Event: Thursday 7 May 2026, 17:00-20:00

SymSym

…not yet a word, but a situation – the resonance of an original language
from which naming may begin,
a logic from which something grows, a material gathered by repetitions,
a reaching towards form in touch: dissolving and braiding back together.

The exhibition unfolds amid times of change, as an intimate practice of living together with Other(s) becomes especially present. One of the exhibition’s frames of reference is the concept of symbiosis, which emerged in the late 19th century when mycologists recognized that lichens consist of more than one species. The term stems from the Greek symbiōsis – ”living together, companionship” – with sýn/sym meaning ”together, with,” and bioses meaning ”life, living”. Forms of coexistence range from reciprocity to asymmetry, from partnership to parasitism. The balances within these relationships remain in motion.

The works in the exhibition explore the interconnections between soil, water, air, and the body. Compost appears both as a fertile metaphor and as a concrete collaborative process – a site of mixing and transformation. Lichens and plankton act as bridge-like beings, primordial images that bring distinct life forms together. Water – rain and milk, gathered and as a trace – binds different scales and temporalities.

The exhibition consists of cameraless images presented as paper and textile installations, video projections employing microscopy, traces of drawing and handcrafts, and processes of decay and evaporation. The works have emerged across different times and places; together they form through acts of fusing, foraging, surplus, and messy relations. In her works, the artist also weaves questions of relationality into the experience of the caregiving body, where the body becomes a growing ground for another, and into a holistic re-forming guided by the other.

SymSym opens in the midst of spring’s unfolding – light increasing, balance tipping toward a new season. The opening also celebrates the release of the publication Water Bodies.

Noora Sandgren is a Helsinki-based visual artist working with photography, text, installation and durational practices. She explores multispecies co-existence, often sharing authorship with the weather, and different entities. Sandgren participates in interdisciplinary collaborations and artist communities. Her most recent work, Water Bodies (2026), is on view by Yrjönkatu swimhall as part of the public art collection of Helsinki Art Museum.

The artists work is supported by The Finnish Cultural Foundation, family & friends.

Special Events:

Spring Wild Herb Walk

Date: Friday 8 May 2026, 17:00-18:15
Location: Departure from Gallery Augusta

Guided by the call of plants, we’ll head out together for a walk lead by a former Susisaari resident. We’ll tase plants fresh, drink them as tea, and take some of our finds home to dry – saving them for another moment of enjoyment. We might discover stonecrop, garlic mustard, ground elder, nettle, linden blossoms… The event is an open walk for everyone, organised as part of the SymSym exhibition. No advance registration required, welcome to join!

This exhibition was originally set to take place in the Maa-Tila Project Space and is instead realised together with HIAP at Gallery Augusta. Maa-Tila’s autumn programme was curated by the gallery’s Programming Committee for 2024-2025 including Andrea Coyotzi Borja, Minjee Hwang Kim, Yilin Ma together with Maa-Tila’s coordinator Emma Lilja.