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Rauma Triennale will invite you to explore the many shades of boredom

The first Rauma Triennial, to be held this summer, will challenge you to consider the value of boredom – a phenomenon seemingly to be avoided at all costs in our time, the stimulus-packed era of digitalisation and globalisation. What do we lose if we give up boredom? Does boredom hide something worth holding on to?


Maija Luutonen, In Ur Pt, 2016, acrylic on paper. Photo: SIC / Tuomas Linna

Maija Luutonen, In Ur Pt, 2016, acrylic on paper. Photo: SIC / Tuomas Linna

Rauma Triennial 2019 – In Praise of Boredom consists of a thematic exhibition, a radio play produced in cooperation with a group of local schoolchildren, and a programme running in the exhibition months.

The exhibition is hosted by the Rauma Art Museum, but it also spills out to the public sphere, and boredom is present in the works in a number of ways: as a laborious technique, slow-paced contents or an appearance that demands it be explored without hurry. The works invite you to linger. They remind you that while boredom is tedious, dull and dreary, it also entails rest, lounging about and concentration.

A local group of schoolchildren has been invited to take part in the Triennial which will produce a radio play under the supervision of children’s writer and creative writing teacher Karoliina Suoniemi and sound artist Jukka Herva. The starting point of the radio play is a world without the internet. It explores the questions of time, how it is passed and spent, boredom and presence.

The exhibition showcases contemporary art from drawings to photography and from sculpture to video art. Artists featured in the exhibition include Nabil Boutros (EG/FR), Emma Jääskeläinen, Hertta Kiiski, Maija Luutonen, Paulien Oltheten (NL), Sari Palosaari, Martha Rosler (US), Jaan Toomik (EE) and Elina Vainio. The 2019 Triennial is curated by Anna Vihma and Anna-Kaisa Koski.


Rauma Triennale dates back to the Rauma Biennale Balticum, highlighting contemporary art around the Baltic Sea, that was run by the Rauma Art Museum from 1977 to 2016 and established itself as one of the most important contemporary art events in the region. The Rauma Art Museum is located in the wooden old town of Rauma, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Rauma Triennale 2019 – In Praise of Boredom will be open to public from 8 June to 15 September 2019. The Triennial is organised by Rauma Art Museum, and it receives funding from the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, the City of Rauma and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.