What is Anish Kapoor going to do in Mänttä?

The exhibition is being curated by Serlachius’ long-term collaborator Timo Valjakka, who has worked with Kapoor previously. He suggested the exhibition to me about five years ago. 

At that time, Serlachius was closely involved in a project in which Tampere, Mänttä and other municipalities in Finland’s Pirkanmaa Region were aspiring to be made a European Capital of Culture in 2026. It was then that we decided to aim for Kapoor to be one of the main stars of Tampere’s Capital of Culture year.

Oulu won the competition for Capital of Culture, but we did not want to give up on Anish Kapoor’s exhibition: we decided to stage it anyway. So, now, it will become a reality in 2026, just as we originally imagined it.

This will not be the first time that Anish Kapoor has been to Finland. His art has been shown here before, especially in the early stages of his career: in Helsinki (in the Ars series exhibitions and a solo show at Kunsthalle Helsinki); Tampere (Sara Hildén Art Museum); Turku (Aboa Vetus et Ars Nova); and Lapland (Snow Show in Rovaniemi and Kemi). The exhibition at Kunsthalle Helsinki in 2001, curated by Timo Valjakka, was at that point a landmark event in Finland, attracting interest from more than just art lovers.

For our own project, I have had the pleasure of visiting Anish Kapoor’s studio in London on a couple of occasions. The studio in former factory premises is a memorable experience – it is fascinating to see the piety that goes into the planning of Kapoor’s exhibitions and artwork projects around the world.

There is always a hint of mystery in Kapoor’s art. Consequently, we have agreed with the studio that the contents of the exhibition will not be fully revealed before the opening. 

But we can tell you something.

The exhibition will focus on recent works

Anish Kapoor has already done enough retrospectives during his career. When we look at his career now, we can see that, despite his almost 50 years of active work, he is living through a period of very intense creativity. That is why we have not wanted to start putting together an overview of Kapoor’s entire career, but instead have focussed on more recent works.

A special role will be played by Kapoor’s current sculptures, which use Vantablack. In 2014, Kapoor began working with this new nanotechnology-based material, which has commercial applications, for instance, in space technology. For an artist that had since the beginning of his career created works that explored void space and what he has described as the ‘Non-object’, Vantablack, a material that absorbs 99.96 percent of all the visible light, opened up new possibilities of exploring this condition.

Showing Kapoor’s Vantablack works is a good way to start off the exhibition: they variously tell us how, during his working process, he has played with illusion, immateriality, and the idea of a certain kind of immanent purity. The black in these works draws the visitor in.

From black holes, we move on to blood and lava. After the Vantablack works, visitors to the exhibition will encounter Kapoor’s glowing-red, bloody, or even carnal paintings. 

At the same time, they will already have taken a second step into Kapoor’s beloved immersion: as we approach these large paintings and as their intoxicating attraction begins to take effect on us, we almost drown in their masses of paint.

The largest exhibition space at Serlachius Manor will house a site-specific work, devised and produced by Anish Kapoor for the Mänttä exhibition. We will not reveal its nature as yet – but those who know Kapoor’s art may at least be able to guess what kind of experience it might hold. 

The work will be enormous. Its scale is also indicated by the fact that we will have to reinforce the floor of the gallery space so that it can withstand the weight of the sculpture.

With Anish Kapoor’s art, where and how it is presented is always key. 

The artwork to be created in Mänttä will be an immersive experience that takes advantage of the potential of our 600-square-metre, 11-metre-high contiguous exhibition hall. I am keenly looking forward to seeing into what realms Anish Kapoor manages to propel the space with this piece.

It is difficult to talk about the dimensions of Kapoor’s art without resorting to big, overblown words. In fact, the economics of scale in his works have simply grown over the years, while their essentials approach those of architecture. Whereas the Kunsthalle Helsinki show was brought to Finland on three lorries, thirteen will be needed to transport the Mänttä exhibition.

London, Venice and Mänttä

2026 will be an important year for Anish Kapoor. Together with curator Ralph Rugoff, he is currently putting together an exhibition for London’s Hayward Gallery, where he had a major solo exhibition in 1998. The new exhibition at this much-loved institution in the heart of London’s South Bank will be like a homecoming for Kapoor, who has worked out of London throughout his career. And in May during the Venice Biennale Kapoor will host an exhibition at Palazzo Manfrin, presenting his architectural models alongside new immersive mirror works and sculptures.

At Serlachius, we are glad that Kapoor will be under such a bright spotlight just when we are opening his major showing in Mänttä. We hope that as many visual-art lovers as possible will be able to see the exhibitions in both London, Venice and Mänttä. Anish Kapoor’s exhibition will open to the public in Mänttä on 23 May 2026.

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Read also Pauli Sivonen’s article Who Is Anish Kapoor?

Who is Anish Kapoor?

Who is Anish Kapoor?