Daily Brief — Haacke, Northern Women and Hokusai
Institutional critique, alternative spirituality and Japanese woodblock printing set the day’s agenda, with exhibitions in Tokyo, Helsinki and Vejle offering sharply different ways to connect art with society, nature and everyday life.
Image: Hans Haacke, News, 1969/2008. OKI microline 590N 24 Pin Printer with newsfeed on table, roll of paper. Photo: Ellen Page Wilson. © Hans Haacke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo plans Hans Haacke's first major retrospective in Asia, "Information Flow"
The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo will present “Hans Haacke: Information Flow” from February 6 to May 16, 2027, describing it as the first major retrospective in Asia devoted to the German-born artist. Covering more than six decades, the exhibition moves from photographs Haacke took at documenta 2 in 1959 through works including “Condensation Cube” (1963–65), “Blue Sail” (1964–65) and “Grass Grows” (1967–69), to installations examining real estate, industry and political power. It will also include documentation of “DER BEVÖLKERUNG” and a new Tokyo edition of his participatory “Visitors’ Poll” series.
Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki opens “Arcana Borealis – Northern Women and Esotericism” on October 23, bringing together around 50 women artists from Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Sápmi. The exhibition examines links between art, alternative spiritual movements, nature and unseen worlds from the 19th century to the present, with artists including Hilma af Klint, Ellen Thesleff, Anna-Eva Bergman and Outi Pieski. Its materials range from textiles, ceramics and metal engravings to stained glass and mosaic. Åsa Elzén’s “Transcript of a Fallow” (2019) connects recycled textiles with women’s history and collective making, while Sámi duodji brings inherited knowledge and values tied to nature into the display.
Image: Vejle Museum of Art
Hokusai Exhibition Runs in Denmark from 9 October 2026 to 7 March 2027
At Vejle Museum of Art, “Hokusai – The Wave and the Mountain” runs through March 7, 2027, bringing together more than 100 national and international loans. The exhibition includes ukiyo-e prints from “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji”, among them “The Great Wave”, as well as the three-volume “One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji”. Hokusai’s imagery is presented through natural beauty, working life, mythology and intimate scenes, with contemporary dialogue from Japanese artist Tabaimo and Danish artist Ida Kvetny. Japan experts Gunhild Ravn Borggreen and Mette Holm also place the works in perspective through a new podcast on Hokusai and Japan.