Image by Sage Sohier, Perfectible Worlds, 2021: Man with white shorts and red hat at the shore of a sea full of play boats

Group Exhibition: PLAY

Fotografiska Tallinn meets Oulu2026 in a group exhibition designed for the European Capital of Culture.

Play is one of the first things we learn — and one of the first we forget. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, it becomes suspect: suspicious, something unserious, even wasteful. Yet play is how we first make sense of the world. It is how we test limits, build trust, and imagine what could be different.

Today, much of our play happens through screens. We compete, connect, and create in digital spaces that blur the line between real and imagined. But as the world speeds up, the slower, more physical forms of play — the spontaneous, the face-to-face, the unplanned — begin to fade. These are the forms that remind us how to stay curious, how to adapt, and how to be present with one another.

Through the works of 17  international artists, PLAY explores what happens when we treat play not as an escape, but as a vital way of thinking, feeling, and creating. The exhibition unfolds across four themes — It moves through four themes, Joy, Resilience, Rebellion, and Connection — revealing how play shapes everything from how we love to how we resist.

In a time times when rules are rewritten faster than we can follow them, play might just be the language we still share — a way to stay human in a world that often forgets how.

The artists featured in the group exhibition are Martin Parr, Cristina de Middel, Susan Meiselas, Jouko Lehtola, Bruce Davidson, Roger Ballen, Nina Katchadourian, Sage Sohier, Trent Parke, Christopher Herwig, Karolina Wojtas, Niccolo Rastrelli, Joosep Kivimäe, Mathias Väärsi, Pelle Cass, Deanna Dikeman and Louis-Philippe Rondeau. Sound design for the exhibition has been composed by musician Erki Pärnoja.

The exhibition is curated by Jorven Viilik, Artistic and Brand Director of Fotografiska Tallinn. The exhibition is accompanied by music composed by Erki Pärnoja. The exhibition is co-produced by Fotografiska Tallinn and the Oulu Culture Foundation, the organisation in charge of the Oulu2026 project. This exhibition space is designed by PAVE architects, collaboration partners are Genelec, Saas Instruments, and IP Heikkilä. The exhibition design is done by BankerWessel.

Where? Pekuri Shopping Mall
When? From 14 January until 31 December 2026.
Free for Fotografiska members!