‘Climate Clock’ artists & vision for Oulu2026: Recovering nature’s time in subarctic Finland

Climate Clock announces seven internationally acclaimed artists:

Ranti Bam (b. 1982, Nigeria/UK), Rana Begum (b. 1977, Bangladesh/UK), Takahiro Iwasaki (b. 1975, Japan), Gabriel Kuri (b. 1970, Mexico/Belgium), Antti Laitinen (b. 1975, Finland), Tellervo Kalleinen & Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen (b.1975, Finland and b.1971, Germany/Finland) and SUPERFLEX (artist group, Denmark).

Launching June 2026 in Oulu, Finland – one of the world’s northernmost cities, located just below the Arctic Circle – Climate Clock is a permanent public art trail intertwining art, science and nature to inspire environmental awareness and reconnect us with nature’s time.

Curated by Alice Sharp, founder and Artistic Director of Invisible Dust, who has worked with the artists to explore the science of snow, glaciers melting, lichen’s symbiosis, the risks of climate change and stone age spirituality through archeology. Alice Sharp has brought her scientific and art knowledge together to introduce the artists to academics from Oulu, Helsinki and UK universities. The artists are creating major site-specific works that respond to the unique light, natural rhythms and urgent climate challenges of this subarctic region. Climate Clock asks, how do we reconnect to natures time and the seasons with our increasingly technology driven hectic lifestyles? With winter snow freezing Oulu’s Baltic coastline from November until April, what are the effects of the arctic’s warming four times faster than the global average?*

The Climate Clock is ticking, the snow is melting, and we are learning anew what our forebears knew – that time is not ours to command; that nature keeps its own time.

Alice Sharp, Invisible Dust Artistic Director and curator of Climate Clock

International Artists Announced

Each of the commissioned artists will collaborate with a scientist to create site-specific outdoor installations that blend into natural and urban settings across the municipality. The artworks will celebrate the region’s breathtaking natural beauty, from the seas that freeze in winter, to the intense short summers with extremes of light.

Works by Ranti Bam and Antti Laitinen will encourage people to contemplate their physical and spiritual relationship with the natural world. In Yli-Ii, a woodland area beside the River Iijoki and home to the Kierikki Stone Age Centre, Bam has involved local people in clay and organic material-making workshops, sharing ideas with archaeologists and geomorphologists. Situated next to the river, her large-scale ceramic vessels evoke the intrinsic but diminished synchronicity between humans and the environment, with clay symbolising their shared resilience and vulnerability. Laitinen’s installations will blend with the woodland beside the Koiteli river rapids of Kiiminki, encouraging viewers to pause and see the water and wildlife in a new way. Inspired by his work with a lichenologist, two large-scale kinetic sculptures incorporate moss and lichen – a bioindicator of air quality – exploring the impact of local pollution on their growth.

Rana Begum will draw inspiration from Oulu’s subarctic light and intricate shapes of its sea ice to create an interactive series of sculptures that will transform the city’s central square. Developed through conversations with glaciologist Alun Hubbard (University of Oulu), Begum draws on his research (shown on the BBC’s Frozen Planet) of the alarming melting rate of Arctic Circle glaciers. Sculptor Takahiro Iwasaki is working with snow hydrologist Pertti Ala-aho to create delicate, miniature forms that capture the magic of nature. Set in Ylikiiminki, and linked to its annual Tar Festival, his work will reference local architectural shapes, an example of how each installation will celebrate the historic and cultural significance of their location.

A cautionary work by Gabriel Kuri will transform public spaces within the suburban area of Oulunsalo. Working with UK-based climate scientist Kevin Anderson, Kuri’s work incorporates the visual language of risk assessment charts to warn of the dangers of climate change. SUPERFLEX will create a new marine landmark set along the harbour of the coastal area of Haukipudas. The Danish artist group brings their significant long-term collaboration with marine biologists and scientists to produce a new sculpture which, if submerged through rising sea levels, would foster marine biodiversity. Developed in conversation with local fishermen, the work exemplifies the legacy of the wider Climate Clock project and encourages the public to slow down.

It has been so exciting to see how the artists have embraced scientific environmental thinking in Oulu2026’s incredible context, from the archaeological remains of Stone Age spiritual practices to measuring the uncontrollable melting of glaciers.

Alice Sharp, Invisible Dust Artistic Director and curator of Climate Clock

Programmed and managed by international producer Claudia Woolgar and the Oulu2026 team, Climate Clock will embody Oulu2026’s central concept of ‘cultural climate change’, harnessing art to raise environmental awareness, inspire hope for the future of the planet, and foster a permanently enriched cultural life for the region.

Climate Clock launches in June 2026 as part of Oulu2026, European Capital of Culture, www.oulu2026.eu. For further information about Climate Clock, and to read the curatorial statement, click here.

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* Duffey, A., Mallett, R., Irvine, P. J., Tsamados, M., and Stroeve, J.: ESD Ideas: Arctic amplification’s contribution to breaches of the Paris Agreement, Earth Syst. Dynam., 14, 1165–1169, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-1165-2023, 2023.