Guarding the Baltic Sea is a multidisciplinary art project set on the island of Vartiosaari, located in the Helsinki archipelago in Finland. It aims to raise awareness of the ecological challenges facing the Baltic Sea and other bodies of water, including climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.
By bringing together artists from Finland, Estonia, Poland, Germany, and France, the project seeks to develop artistic practices that combine knowledge, empathy, and action to bring innovative solutions for ocean literacy to life.
The Estonian artist selected for the project is Kristina Õllek, a visual artist based in Tallinn. She works with photography, video, installation, and research-based methods to explore aquatic ecosystems, marine habitats, and the impact of human activity on the environment. Õllek’s practice often examines the boundary between natural and synthetic, questioning how we perceive materials and landscapes in a technologically mediated world. Her works have been exhibited internationally and are part of collections such as the Estonian Art Museum and Fotomuseum Winterthur.
Running from spring to autumn 2025, the initiative includes five artist residencies on Vartiosaari Island. The artists will explore water-related themes in dialogue with students, scientists, and experts across disciplines. These interactions will lead to workshops, public discussions, and a final exhibition accompanied by a multidisciplinary conference on the ecological challenges of seas and oceans, with a focus on the Baltic Sea.
From the Goethe-Institut Finnland website, you can find all the other information related to the project – welcome to follow the Guarding the Baltic Sea project!
Guarding the Baltic Sea is a project by EUNIC Finland and Goethe-Institut Finnland, French Institute of Finland, the Polish Embassy in Helsinki, and the Estonian Embassy in Helsinki.
EUNIC — European Union National Institutes for Culture — is Europe’s network of national cultural institutes and organisations, with 39 members from all EU member states and associated countries.