João Laia nominated as a new chief curator of exhibitions at Kiasma
João Laia has been appointed as the chief curator of exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki. He will be responsible for exhibition programming at Kiasma together with the museum director Leevi Haapala. Laia succeeds Marja Sakari, who has been appointed as the director of the Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki.
“João Laia is a highly networked curator of topical exhibitions, film series and performing arts. He is well versed in global contemporary art scene and the social theory of art. The visionary Laia has a clear interest in developing curatorial expertise and the presentation formats of art. Laia contributes regularly to leading European art publications such as frieze and Mousse. In recent years he has worked on exhibition projects and in expert positions in Brazil, Britain, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Sweden. We are very pleased to have him on our team to strengthen the international role of Kiasma and the Finnish National Gallery,” said Leevi Haapala, Director of Kiasma.
Laia is curator and writer with a background in social sciences, film theory and contemporary art. His projects explore the embedded relations between philosophy, representation, society and technology.
“I am thrilled to join Kiasma as the chief curator of temporary exhibitions. As part of the museum’s team, I look forward to present challenging, experimental and poetic work to engage the eclectic range of audiences that make the wide local, regional and international constituencies of the institution by addressing key social debates defining our present and near future”, João Laia said.
The new chief curator assumed his duties on 3rd of June. His duties will include planning of Kiasma’s exhibition programme together with the director and programming teams of the museum. One key project in the near future will be to curate the upcoming ARS22 exhibition.
