Vantaa Art Museum Artsi's exhibition Empathy explores the multilayered nature of emotion, power, and connection

Empathy as emotion, skill, and choice 

Empathy is not merely a spontaneous emotional reaction, but the ability to perceive another person’s experience and to make choices in relation to it. The exhibition examines how facial expressions, gestures, tones of voice, and the nuances of silence communicate emotions—and how emotional intelligence helps us read these signals. Empathy is also a decision: the choice to listen, to make space, and to affirm the value of another. While empathy enables understanding, compassion goes further, giving rise to the desire to act. 

Empathy and power: who gets to tell the story? 

Empathy is not merely an emotion, but a social force that shapes how people are seen, heard, and positioned. It can foster connection, but it can also expose power relations: who is given a voice, and whose experience remains on the margins. Empathy emerges through interaction—in how we listen, make space, and share roles. When these roles are flexible, dialogue deepens and empathy becomes a form of shared meaning-making. The exhibition invites reflection on how empathy can reveal the linguistic and structural forms of violence that hide within norms and silences, and asks what happens when we truly listen to another person without stripping them of their agency. 

At the intersection of empathy, data, and violence 

In the exhibition Empathy is artist Ali Akbar Mehta’s purgatory EDIT: The Liberation Archives for the Cyborgs of Now (2026) which is a user-driven, montage-based cinematic artwork that delves into the subconscious of the digital age and the ways reality is constructed through screens, filters, and algorithms. The artwork explores the effects of visual manipulation, sensory overload, data fatigue, and ideological numbness—and asks what happens to empathy when a constant stream of images reshapes our ability to perceive another human being. 

At the core of the artwork is the Doomscroll Archive, a collection of over 30,000 video clips that brings various forms of violence into view and challenges viewers to consider how visual overexposure affects empathy. The visual semiotics research underpinning the archive is further revealed in the exhibition’s Violence Intensity Maps which organize the material into fifteen categories and expose how imagery constructs cultural understandings of violence. 

At the artwork’s Research Station, museum visitors can independently explore the archive, browse sources and data structures, and create their own viewing lists. This process offers insight into how images of the past and present shape visions of the future and reflect the social conflicts of our time. 

The most experiential component of the artwork—the Cyber Performance—invites participants to engage with the artwork on a personal level. Museum visitors who register in advance are equipped with XR glasses and EEG sensors that measure emotion-related responses. The participant’s stress, focus, and excitement directly influence the sequencing of the video material, generating a real-time, individualized “experience video.” The work prompts reflection on whether empathy can endure in a world where algorithms steer our attention and images of violence circulate relentlessly—or whether the viewer inevitably becomes a cyborg, whose emotions are embedded within the logic of data. 

Empathy across species 

The exhibition expands the concept of empathy to include other species as well. Viewing the world through a human-centered lens can render other living beings invisible. Empathy in a multispecies world means developing the sensitivity to recognize that the disappearance of a single species can transform an entire network of life. Art offers a space to ask: What does empathy toward other species reveal about humanity? What new perspectives open onto environmental crises such as biodiversity loss, deforestation, and the treatment of animals?

As part of the exhibition the Future School  

The exhibition Empathy includes a workshop space created by Artsi in cooperation with the Children and Youth Foundation’s Future School. In this space, visitors imagine a positive future Vantaa shaped by empathy. The workshop space invites both groups and independent museum visitors to embark on an exploratory journey into alternative futures. 

As part of the collaboration, activities are organized in the workshop space in which young people from Vantaa themselves imagine and examine alternative futures. The young participants have the opportunity to consider what kinds of futures they wish to see and to develop the skills needed to bring about positive change. The aim of the activities is to strengthen young people’s own agency – their ability to understand, envision, and collaboratively create better futures. 

The Children and Youth Foundation’s Future School is a pioneer in futures education, combining methods from futures studies with arts education. 

The artists of the exhibition (15.4.-12.7.2026)  

Malin Ahlsved, Kari Cavén, Kaisu Koski, Anne Koskinen, Ali Akbar Mehta, Mari Mäntynen, Kirsi Neuvonen, Tapio Nyyssönen, Pekka Pitkänen, Lau Rämö, Kerttu Saali, Timo Saarelma, Elsa Salonen, Pentti Sammallahti, Tommi Toija, Toni R. Toivonen, Aki Turunen, Viggo Wallensköld. 

The artists of the exhibition (13.7.-18.10.2026) 

Malin Ahlsved, Kari Cavén, Marjatta Hanhijoki, Kaisu Koski, Anne Koskinen, Ali Akbar Mehta, Mari Mäntynen, Kirsi Neuvonen, Tapio Nyyssönen, Pekka Pitkänen, Lau Rämö, Kerttu Saali, Timo Saarelma, Elsa Salonen, Tommi Toija, Toni R. Toivonen, Aki Turunen, Viggo Wallensköld. 

Artsi invites all to celebrate the opening event of the exhibition on Tue 14 April 2026 from 5 pm to 7 pm. In addition, the Artsi exhibition includes events such as Children's Saturday 25.4.2026, guided tours, senior mornings and Croquis drawing evenings. See more detailed updated program information: https://www.artsimuseo.com/tapahtumat  (in Finnish).  

The exhibition Empathy is open from Wed 15 April until Sun 18 October 2026 
Vantaa Art Museum Artsi, Paalutori 3, 01600 Vantaa   
Artsi is open Tue –Wed 11 am –6 pm, Thurs 1 pm – 8 pm, Fri –Sun 11 am – 4pm.  
Admission to the Vantaa Art Museum Artsi is free for everyone.

See also  

The exhibition Empathy 
https://www.artsimuseo.com/eng/empathy  
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Vantaa Art Museum Artsi  
Myyrmäki house, Paalutori 3, 01600 Vantaa   
email: artsi@vantaa.fi / tel. + 358 43 826 8990