A major retrospective of Mika Vainio's work is running at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki until 10 January 2021. Called Mika Vainio: 50 Hz, it’s the first comprehensive survey of Vainio’s sound installations in the late musician's native country. “The exhibition project has also served as an important and groundbreaking research into Vainio’s sound art,” says chief curator Kati Kivinen.

Vainio’s first solo exhibition was curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1997. Shortly after he died in 2017, Kiasma received a donation of a Vainio sound installation called x 540 kHz (2009). In Mika Vainio: 50 Hz, it features alongside his other works 3 x Wall Clocks (2001), 808 (2015), Onko (1996), Soundchamber Berlin (2004) and - 27 (1998).

The show is co-produced with Helsinki Festival, which runs until 6 September. As part of the festival Kiasma Theatre are showing a series of films based on Vainio’s music. The exhibition catalogue includes articles by Pertti Grönholm, Tommi Grönlund, Kati Kivinen, Rikke Lundgreen, The Wire’s Anne Hilde Neset and Mika Taanila, plus an artist interview by Ute Meta Bauer and foreword by Museum Director Leevi Haapala.

Mika Vainio: 50 Hz runs at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma on until 10 January 2021.