Guarding the Baltic Sea
multidisciplinary art project

Guarding the Baltic Sea is a multidisciplinary art project set on the island of Vartiosaari, located in the Helsinki archipelago in Finland. It aims to raise awareness of the ecological challenges facing the Baltic Sea and other bodies of water, including climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.

By bringing together artists from Finland, Estonia, Poland, Germany, and France, the project seeks to develop artistic practices that combine knowledge, empathy, and action to bring innovative solutions for ocean literacy to life.

The initiative, running from spring to autumn 2025, consists of five artistic residencies on Vartiosaari Island, allowing participating artists to explore water-related themes in dialogue with students, scientists, and experts from various disciplines. These exchanges will lead to workshops, public discussions, and a final exhibition accompanied by a multidisciplinary conference on the ecological challenges of seas and oceans, particularly the Baltic Sea.

On this page, you can discover event details, artist profiles, and all other related information about the project – welcome aboard to Guarding the Baltic Sea!

Guarding the Baltic Sea is a project by EUNIC Finland and Goethe-Institut Finnland, French Institute of Finland, the Polish Embassy in Helsinki, and the Estonian Embassy in Helsinki.

EUNIC — European Union National Institutes for Culture — is Europe’s network of national cultural institutes and organisations, with 39 members from all EU member states and associated countries.