MALMO.- “The Sámi tradition is based on reciprocity, respect, and equal status for nature and people. Our land is often pictured as wilderness or no-man’s land. I want to show it is a cultural environment that has evolved in coexistence with all living entities, including humans. I use the term ‘radical softness’ when describing my works because I think it is radical to love, to wish well, to help and heal.” —Outi Pieski

Outi Pieski is based in Ohcejohka (Utsjoki), Finland, in northern Sápmi—the geographical area that has been inhabited by the Indigenous Sámi people for millennia, predating and crossing current national boundaries. In her work, Pieski sheds light on questions of Sámi history, philosophy, and culture, and how this impact Sámi life today.

The exhibition at Malmö Konstmuseum is her most extensive in Sweden to date, featuring around fifty works from painting, photography, and textiles to video, graphics, and installations, that provide a multifaceted view of her practice.

For Outi Pieski, making art is an intensely private act that deepens the connection with the landscape and nature both within and around us. From a Sámi viewpoint, humans are not above nature but in a position of interdependence—we coexist with all living things in mutual respect. Nature is seen as an interconnected system in which all creatures, both visible and invisible, are related and interdependent.

Her work is rooted in the Sámi handicraft tradition duodji, a holistic concept that encompasses everyday objects, clothing, and jewellery, but also the Sámi worldview. When the Sámi were forbidden to practice their spirituality, they instead hid the spiritual symbols in their crafts. Crafting was a way to express resistance. Duodji is a collective way of creating, and the act also strengthens ties to each other, to previous and future generations, and to nature. For Pieski, working with duodji is also a method for healing the traumas that span generations and a way to strengthen an original relationship with the land and all living things. She uses the concept of “radical softness” to explain how duodji deals with vulnerability, honesty, sensitivity, and communality.

The exhibition title Eatnamastit comes from the title of a new installation Pieski has made specially for the exhibition, and it means to ground or anchor oneself in the land. The environments around her home region run like a red thread through her art. Her landscapes embody her own experiences while also sharing the experiences of generations that came before.

Since her graduation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2000, Outi Pieski (born 1973) has received international recognition. Her most recent exhibitions include solo shows at Tate St Ives (2024), Sámi Museum Siida (2023), Bonniers Konsthall (2022), and EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art (2018), participation in GIBCA – Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (2023), the 23rd Biennale of Sydney (2022), 13th Gwangju Biennale (2021), and the Finnish Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019), as well as participation at group exhibitions at Tate Modern (2025), MARKK, Hamburg (2023–24), Kiasma, Helsinfors (2022), and Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2022).

Curators: Anna Johansson and Marcus Pompeius