Embodying a Building: Bodies in Aalto Buildings

This exhibition explores the relationship between the human body and Aalto buildings through the work of contemporary artists Elina Brotherus (FI), Dafna Maimon (FI) and Ilona Sagar (UK). The artists have spent extended periods in the buildings, living in them, talking to the people who worked in them, and incorporating the spaces into their own artistic practice. 

Across these works, the buildings are approached as more than static objects: the body and the building form a symbiotic relationship, each shaping the other and carrying the traces and memories of the other. Through the artists’ own bodies, as well as through real and imagined characters, the works move between observation and fiction, the analytical and the absurd, in their encounters with the buildings. 

Together, the artworks offer a deeper and broader perspective on the Aaltos’ architecture, one that moves beyond traditional forms of analysis. 

The building as a body.
The body as a building.

The Aaltos are known for their humanistic architecture, which focuses on the human body through organic forms, warm materials, and a strong design language inspired by nature. The idea of a Gesamtkunstwerk, or “total work of art”, in which different forms of design come together as a unified whole, was central to this approach. They worked across architecture, urban planning, design, and art, developing their organic design language through close dialogue with important modernist artists. 

The plural “Aaltos” acknowledges the collaborative practice behind this work, referring not only to Alvar Aalto but also to Aino Marsio-Aalto, Elissa Aalto, and the wider Aalto studio, whose contributions were part of the practice and its development.

Artists: Elina Brotherus (FI), Dafna Maimon (FI) och Ilona Sagar (UK).
Curator: Sabina Westerholm

Read about accessibility in The Nordic House.

Cover photo: Watering Plants by artist Elina Brotherus.