Open Call: Artist portfolio meetings on 17th of September with Christine M. Kaiser in Helsinki

ByLaura

photo credits: Kay Mei Ling Beadman

Helsinki / Hong Kong – September 2025 

Finnish Art Agency is pleased to announce an open call for artist portfolio conversations with curator, lecturer, and researcher Christine M. Kaiser, PhD. The meetings are designed to provide artists with an opportunity to present their work, engage in dialogue, and explore potential avenues for future projects.

Kaiser, currently based in Helsinki and teaching at the Academy of Visual Arts, Baptist University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, works at the intersection of research methodologies, situated curatorial practice, and relational exhibition-making. Her work focuses on the societal and communal dimensions of contemporary art, drawing from her PhD research on art spaces and their interrelation with urbanscapes, influenced by her international experience across Europe and East Asia.

With a background shaped by her rural German upbringing and professional life in Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and now Helsinki, Kaiser’s practice brings together cross-cultural perspectives and lived experience. As a working mother of two, she considers motherhood as an essential part of her thinking and working practice. Her contemporary burning desire lies in engaging with different formats through contact zones for teaching, exhibition-making and conferences.

Her recent projects include:

  • Activations at JCCAC (2021), Floating Projects (2022), Documenta 15 (2022), and EASST conferences (2020–2023).
  • The collaborative exhibition “In Other Wor(l)ds | 換言（世）之 | In anderen Wortwelten” at the Goethe Institute, Hong Kong (May 17 – June 21, 2025).
  • Leadership roles at Museum für Moderne Kunst (Frankfurt a. Main) and the ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (Stuttgart), including management of the award-winning German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2011.

Through the artist portfolio meetings, FAA and Kaiser seek to establish contact zones where artistic practices and curatorial research intersect and collide. The meetings offer artists the chance to initiate a conversation through presenting their portfolios, receive and provide feedback, and build connections that may lead to future collaborations in exhibition-making, teaching formats, or research-driven projects.

Submission Details

  • Artists are invited to submit a portfolio (PDF or website link) including a short biography, an artist statement, and documentation of recent works.
  • Meetings are open to artists at all career stages.
  • Selected artists will be invited to participate in individual meetings with Christine M. Kaiser at Finnish Art Agency / Confidants, Korkeavuorenkatu 2 B, F-entrance, 3rd floor. 
  • Meetings are co-ordinated by Laura Köönikkä
  • Deadline for submissions: 10th of September 
  • Submit portfolios to: info(at)finnishartagency.com