Rethinking Architecture Through Trans Experience – Teo Ala-Ruona Selected as Artist for the Nordic Pavilion  

Performance artist Teo Ala-Ruona and his team have been chosen to create the exhibition for the Nordic Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2025, commissioned by the Architecture and Design Museum Helsinki and curated by architect Kaisa Karvinen.  

The exhibition invites audiences to think about inclusivity and accessibility of the spaces we design and live in, while also exploring how this broader perspective can transform the way architecture is imagined and created.  

“Architecture reflects societal ideologies and thought. It impacts human bodies and their political realities,” says Teo Ala-Ruona.   

“My work addresses the sociopolitical pressures and impacts on bodies, particularly trans bodies. I am intrigued by how architecture, as an everyday environment, has influenced the ways we categorise things and each other,” Ala-Ruona continues.  

For the Biennale Architettura 2025, Ala-Ruona has assembled a multidisciplinary team including architect A.L. Hu, set designer and artist Teo Paaer, sound designer Tuukka Haapakorpi, dramaturge Even Minn, visual artist Venla Helenius, fashion designer Ervin Latimer, graphic designer Kiia Beilinson and performers Kid Kokko, Caroline Suinner, and Romeo Roxman Gatt.  

Based in Helsinki, Teo Ala-Ruona works across performance art, contemporary theatre, and choreography. His works have been featured at prominent venues such as the Performa Biennial in New York, Vilnius Performance Biennale, Kiasma Theatre, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in London.  

Ala-Ruona views everyday environments as stages that guide how people observe one another. The Nordic pavilion itself functions as such a space, subtly shaping ways of seeing and experiencing.  

According to Kaisa Karvinen, the curator of the Pavilion:  

“Teo Ala-Ruona’s piece challenges us to reconsider our relationship with the environment, history, and the future, offering new perspectives on the built world. The trans experience of architecture brings to light rules and structures that many people take for granted – in the same way that we each experience unconscious bias, our understanding of our agency in buildings and space are pre-conditioned by our culture and experiences. What excites me about Teo’s proposal is how he combines the methodologies of architecture and the performing arts. These two fields share much in common: they engage with materiality, the body, and space, while both also envision possible futures.” 

The 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, opens in May 2025 under the curatorship of Italian architect, urban planner, and researcher Carlo Ratti. Under Ratti’s guidance, the Biennale Architettura 2025 will explore different forms of intelligence and humanity during an era of redefined boundaries.   

The Nordic Pavilion is co-owned by Finland, Norway, and Sweden, with the responsibility for exhibitions rotating among the countries. The upcoming exhibition is produced by the Architecture and Design Museum Helsinki in collaboration with Sweden’s ArkDes and Norway’s National Museum. Carina Jaatinen serves as commissioner of the exhibition in cooperation with Karin Nilsson (ArkDes) and Stina Högkvist (the National museum of Norway). The curatorial team from the Architecture and Design Museum Helsinki includes curator Kaisa Karvinen and curatorial advisor Suvi Saloniemi.  

Artist Selection Process  

Teo Ala-Ruona was selected for the Nordic Pavilion through an invited selection process. The museum commissioned proposals from three artists who work with architecture or material environments, guided by the curator’s concept. An international advisory group reviewed the proposals, comprising Nick Axel (architect, editor, writer, and head of architecture at Gerrit Rietveld Academie and E-Flux Architecture), architect, curator and critic Eva Franch i Gilabert, and Panu Savolainen (assistant professor of architectural history and restoration at Aalto University).  

19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia  

 The International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia is the world’s most renowned platform for presenting architecture on an international stage. In 2025, the Architecture Biennale will be curated by Italian architect, urban planner, engineer, and researcher Carlo Ratti, under the theme Intelligence: Natural. Artificial. Collective. The 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia will be open to the public from 24 May to 23 November 2025.  

For more information, please contact:  

Ilona Hildén 
Communications Specialist  
Architecture and Design Museum Helsinki  
ilona.hilden@mfa.fi  
+358 44 358 2175