Terike Haapoja is a Finnish visual artist based in Berlin and New York. With a specific focus in encounters with nature, death and other species, Haapoja’s work investigates the existential and political boundaries of our world. In recent projects, Haapoja’s work has been focusing more explicitly on how the otherness of nature and other species is constructed by political, theoretical and societal structures. The notion of a world that is deeply rooted in the physicality and co-existence of beings and their multiple lifeworlds is at the core of Haapoja’s politically and ethically driven practice.
Haapoja approaches the previously mentioned themes by building up large projects, often realized in the forms of installations, related publications and participatory interventions. Recent projects include the exhibition Closed Circuit – Open Duration (2008/2013), last seen in the 55 Venice Biennale, which focused on questions of mortality, co-existence and the relationship between humans and nature while adopting scientific technologies, The Party of Others –project(2011-ongoing), which looks at the status of other species and other groups excluded from the law by appropriating the form of a political party, and the large scale project Museum of Nonhumanity (2016- ) on the history of dehumanization, with author Laura Gustafsson. Haapoja’s work has been exhibited widely in solo and group shows internationally.
Haapoja represented Finland in the Venice Biennale in 2013 with a solo show in the Nordic Pavilion, and her work has been awarded with several prizes. She is an experienced lecturer and has given invited presentations and keynotes in the programs of Creative Time Summit, Documenta, Venice Biennale, ZKM Karlsruhe, Elia Conference, ISCP, among many others. Haapoja’s writings have been published internationally and she is the co-editor of several books on art’s role in culture policies, technology and the environment.
