Kiasma, a contemporary art museum in Helsinki, Finland, is currently presenting Milky Way Tour, an exhibition of over twenty artists’ works addressing fundamental questions of our existence. The themes include space and alien life, mysticism, tech and artificial intelligence (AI) and the ongoing environmental crisis. Milky Way Tour is on view from November 15, 2024 – March 23, 2025, and is organised by Jari-Pekka Vanhala, curator, Kiasma. The curator joins STIR for an interview discussing the exhibition’s themes.

Such work makes us confront our own reflexes of projection, while also questioning divisions between humans and machines along gender lines. – Jari-Pekka Vanhala, curator, Kiasma

Milky Way Tour spans historical and contemporary works, including a painting titled Alchemist from the 18th century. It depicts an alchemist handling a flask, accompanied by someone who may be an apprentice or possibly a customer. Alchemy toed the line between science and mysticism, and alchemists were famously preoccupied with discovering a method to turn various substances into gold. The painting highlights humankind’s age-old fascination with the mystical, which could also be looked at as the unknown in an esoteric sense.

While alchemy is all but abandoned today, our interest in the unknown and esoteric persists. As Vanhala tells STIR, “Science and technology have not abolished the need for spiritual investigation and contemplation of the mysteries of being. Various beliefs and myths about the relationship between humankind and the universe exist in parallel with research knowledge. At various times, it has been believed that celestial bodies influence human life and destiny, or that the same patterns and structures occur in the universe on both a very large and a very small scale.”

Another artwork included in the exhibition, One of Them is a Human (2017) by Maija Tammi, presents the artist’s preoccupations with AI and raises some difficult questions about tech ethics. The art installation consists of four portrait photographs of three androids and—possibly—one human being. The subjects are unnervingly lifelike, with one photograph, titled #1, Erica, having won two awards at the 2017 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize Competition in London. The rules of the competition state that the photograph “must have been taken by the entrant from life and with a living sitter”. This prompts us to reconsider what we consider to be alive, and if we are to treat Erica as living, it brings an issue of ethics into focus. She could not have rebelled against her programming to act as a sitter for the portrait photograph and, therefore, did not truly issue her consent for it.

Vanhala adds another dimension to our reading of this provocative artwork. He tells STIR, “Such work makes us confront our own reflexes of projection, while also questioning divisions between humans and machines along gender lines.” The curator mentions that the artist has spoken about the conventions of portraiture, stating that it compels us to invent meaning and endow the sitter with an inner life. He continues, saying, “Robotic creation can involve a similar element of narcissistic projection. Erica’s ‘personality’ is programmed by her designers; she echoes their taste in robot-themed films and their techno-utopianism.” To be clear, this line of thinking should not paint Erica’s roboticists in a negative light. However, it is worth considering, as an example, how AI technology may begin catering to regressive attitudes towards women, especially once robotics enters the consumer market.

Milky Way Tour is an ambitious presentation that covers a range of themes. It does not offer easy answers but succeeds in leaving audiences with important questions to mull over.

‘Milky Way Tour’ is on view at Kiasma, Helsinki, from November 15, 2024 – March 23, 2025.