This spring, Nordic Culture Point offered its third Open Call for the Residency B28 since its launch in 2024. The spring 2026 application round, which welcomed applications from all artistic fields, reached a multitude of applicants across the Nordic region. Out of 182 qualified applicants, 6 residencies with a total of 7 participants were granted. As in previous rounds, the number of applicants far exceeded the available residency placements, meaning that fewer than 4% of applicants were selected.
The applications represented a wide variety of artistic perspectives. In this round, however, many applicants were inspired by the unique character of Suomenlinna – its unusual military history and current status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site – and proposed a range of site-responsive mapping practices.
“A recurring theme was listening to the island and its architecture through bodily methods, sound recordings, visual art, handicrafts, and performative approaches”, comments Anki Hellberg-Sågfors, cultural developer for Residency B28. These shared interests point to a broader tendency towards embodied, site-sensitive and process-based artistic approaches amongst applicants to Residency B28.
The next chance to be part of Residency B28 is in September 2026, when Nordic Culture Point opens the next Open Call for October 2027 to March 2028. Residency B28 aims to offer a period of 1–6 weeks for artistic work, research or curating that engages with contemporary artistic practices and the Nordic region, and in September’s round of applications the focus will be on cultural practitioners of indigenous peoples and minorities in the Nordic region.
Granted applicants, Spring 2026 Open Call:
Camille Auer (FI) and Niko Wearden (UK/FI)
We will not save the oceans by recycling: The artistic duo Auer and Wearden is working on a collaborative essay film situated amongst various island ecologies in the Nordics. The work draws attention to the fragility of ecosystems, with thematical focus on mass extinction and the rights of children.
Karoline Skriver (DK)
Nordiske note – Nordic Notes: Musician and composer Karoline Skriver is working on a pan-Nordic collaborative project featuring recitation, singing, electronic music and accordion. Skriver will be composing a new body of music to Nordic works of prose, collaborating with four Nordic poets writing in Danish, Faroese, Icelandic and Norwegian. After the residency, the project will conclude with a concert featuring all four poets on stage, with musical work combining all four languages interwoven with one another.
Arngrimur Borgthorsson (IS/SE)
Minutiae: In his work, Borgthorsson focuses on small objects, tiny details and rituals of daily life. He frequently sets himself a frame or a set of rules and then follows it rigidly to its, sometimes absurd, conclusion – he basically aims to build a caern, but instead of rocks, he uses other objects and actions. During the residency, Borgthorsson is set to interfere with the surroundings in Suomenlinna and gather something which, as of yet, remains undetermined.
Elise Marie Skaug (NO)
From seed to waste: Working with printmaking and regenerative art practices, Elise Maria Skaug uses discarded wooden objects as matrices for woodcut, allowing their history and use to shape the image. She is especially drawn to the imbalance between slow-growing trees and short-lived human use. During her residency, Skaug wishes to research Finnish forestry and its overlooked narratives in relation to Nordic timber history, as well as produce a series of prints using locally sourced wood waste as a material.
Sayo Ota (GL/NO/JP)
Material-based research, memory and narratives: Sayo Ota works at the intersection of contemporary art, craft and material-based research, approaching jewellery as a critical medium. The project aimed for the residency period explores materials, memory, and history through the peripheries of Suomenlinna and Kalaallit Nunaat / Greenland, regions shaped by imperial histories with military presence, resource extraction, and cultural exchange. Ota works with glass, a transforming and unstable material, to weave layers of visibility, transparency, and memory.
Daria Sol Andrews (IS)
Afro-Nordic Curatorial Research: Researcher and curator Daria Sol Andrews is attending the residence to carry out curatorial research around BIPOC Finnish artists, as a preparation for her doctoral studies starting in 2027. Her research interests center on belonging, land, material and textile practices, oral histories, and decolonization in Nordic contexts.
