Ki NURMENNIEMI (Myriagon)

Profile

Graduated with an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from Aalto University, Helsinki in 2013. Graduated with an MA in Sociology from Tampere University, Finland in 2010.

Ki NURMENNIEMI is a Co-Founder of Punos Art & Research, a contemporary art curator trained in Curating, Managing, and Mediating Art (Aalto University) and Sociology (Tampere University). Working in Finland and internationally since 2010, NURMENNIEMI has curated transdisciplinary projects around contemporary art and its approaches to environmental and social sustainability.

Recent exhibitions and activities
2023            Tendenser Biennial, Abundance, Galleri F 15, Moss, Norway
2020-           "Punos Art & Research", Curatorial Platform, Helsinki, Finland
2020            "Care Practice", online Public Programme, worldwide
2018            "Fictional Frictions", group exhibition, Mugagsa Temple, Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea
2018            "Myriagon Word Worlds", Seoul Media City Biennale, performance, SeMA Museum of Art, Seoul
2013–2018   "Frontiers in Retreat", international EU culture project, lead curator, several locations in Europe and East Asia
2012–2018    Lead Curator at HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme 


Doctoral Researcher at DENVI – Doctoral Programme in Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences, The University of Helsinki 

About works

NURMENNIEMI's curatorial practice has been embedded in artist residencies and multidisciplinary collectives. From 2012 through 2018, NURMENNIEMI worked as a curator with HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme. One of NURMENNIEMI’s responsibilities there was to lead the 5-year EU project Frontiers in Retreat – Multidisciplinary Approaches to Ecology in Contemporary Art. In 2018–2019, NURMENNIEMI continued as the Associate Curator of HIAP and Mustarinda Association's Post-Fossil Transition Project. NURMENNIEMI has curated exhibitions, performative events, and public programs in Finland (such as Fiskars Village Art and Design Biennale 2019), South Korea (Fictional Frictions as part of the Gwangju Biennale 2018, Edge Effects, 2017, Art Sonje Center, Seoul), The United States (Deep Time Séance 2015, Residency Unlimited, New York), as well as online (Care Practice, co-curated with Ceci Moss of Gas Gallery, Los Angeles, 2020). In 2020, NURMENNIEMI co-founded, together with Anna-Kaisa Koski, the research and art commissioning platform Punos Arts & Research.

NURMENNIEMI is currently conducting doctoral research on how arts organisations, namely artist residencies, develop and spread practices that respond to various types of sustainability concerns. Furthermore, Myriagon's study looks at how these organisations that are an integral part of the globally connected contemporary art ecosystems while being embedded in various kinds of local communities, are playing a part in advancing sustainability transformations.

In their art writing, NURMENNIEMI is especially interested in ecological interconnectedness and frequently delves into questions posed by critical posthumanities. In recent years, they have been writing about the fossil-fuel dependency of contemporary art field as well as multi-species care, gentleness and slowness as artistic strategies.