7. – 31.5.2026

There are soft, candy-coloured bodies in the space. Some resemble brains or internal organs. Some glisten as if wet. You can touch some of them. You can sit on one. It compresses under your weight, and when you get back up, the touch lingers for a moment. Some of the bodies make sounds. They aren’t constant, but are triggered by proximity or touch. In a video, a hand keeps touching the same spot again and again. The soft, wet surface yields, takes in a fingerprint, and plumps back up.

Softcore is the first collaborative exhibition by visual artist Reija Meriläinen and sound artist Minna Koivisto. It moves around questions of what it is to be a body and where desires arise. Meriläinen’s soft textile sculptures meet Koivisto’s layered sonic world, forming a multisensory installation that reflects experiences of queer, off-kilter desire. Softcore presents desire as something incomplete, vulnerable, and at times awkward – a state of ongoing transformation.

Minna Koivisto is an accomplished music producer and sound artist. In their work, Koivisto explores queer sound by expanding and tending to the in-between spaces of sound – pauses, gaps, and aftertones – creating soft, inclusive, and tender soundscapes. Koivisto has previously worked with artists such as Fever Ray, Planningtorock, and PMMP.

Reija Meriläinen is a Helsinki-based artist whose work materialises social tensions and embodied experiences. Their works often allude to power relations and violence, even when they appear visually soft. Meriläinen’s work has been presented in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Finland and internationally, including the ARS17 exhibition at Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2019, they were awarded the AVEK Media Art Prize.