Image: Viktoria Binschtok, Digital Semiotics (Minecraft Melon), 2024. © Viktoria Binschtok
"The Lure of the Image" (Kuvan houkutus), an exhibition produced by Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, is on view at the Finnish Museum of Photography in Helsinki from October 9, 2026, to February 28, 2027. The show occupies the museum's first floor at the Kaapelitehdas cultural centre and is curated by Marco De Mutiis, Doris Gassert and Alessandra Nappo.
Its subject is photography in its current digital forms and the pull those images exert. The exhibition asks how pictures entice or win us over as they spread across the internet, and how they solicit, capture or steer our attention.
Fourteen artistic positions take on the visual habits through which communication, critique and humor travel in online culture, and through which images help shape social, cultural and political moods. Visitors are led through the image world of the internet by way of social media feeds, dating-app profiles, face filters, memes, ASMR videos, imagery that makes weapons look "cute," Google Street View pictures, emojis, AI-generated images and the low-resolution screenshots that circulate in conspiracy theories and protest movements.
According to the museum, the works map the intricate mechanics of attraction, showing how images, and the structures behind them such as algorithms and datasets, direct attention, play on emotions and influence opinion. They also examine the active role images play in an attention economy built on desire, and how viewers feed that economy through their own emotional responses.
The participating artists are Zoé Aubry, Sara Bezovšek, Viktoria Binschtok, Sara Cwynar, Éamonn Freel & Lynski, Dina Kelberman, Michael Mandiberg, Joiri Minaya, Simone C Niquille, Jon Rafman, Jenny Rova, Hito Steyerl, Noura Tafeche and Ellie Wyatt. Among the works shown on the museum's page is Viktoria Binschtok's "Digital Semiotics (Minecraft Melon)" from 2024.
The Helsinki presentation has received state funding from the Finnish Heritage Agency.
