The selected artwork is a statement in support of the significance of art.
Since 2022, the visual identity of the Naantali Music Festival has been based on visual works of art, chosen every year based on an application round for professional artists. Over 50 artists participated in the call held in September with their works, from which the jury selected the artwork “Kuilu” (2021) by the Turku-based artist Sini-Meri Hedberg as the visual artwork for 2025.
Hedberg graduated with a Master of Philosophy degree from the University of Turku in 2002 and as a visual artist from the Turku Academy of Arts in 2004.
“The chasms are sudden downturns in life, moments when we stop to reflect on meaningful things,” describes Hedberg, who is often known for her pastel-colored and landscape-inspired paintings, influenced by the northern sky, surrealism, and 19th-century German Romantic landscape painting.
“The landscape of my work depicts the nature of music. Music carries and moves us from one mood to another; it leads us to the edge of the chasm, but also lifts us to a pink cloud, towards lightness and hope,” says visual artist Sini-Meri Hedberg.
Naantali Music Festival will take place next summer from June 3 to June 14, 2025, and Hedberg’s exhibition can be visited at Naantali Art Room from May 20 to June 8, 2025.
The visual art works were evaluated and the visual identity selected by a jury, which included Naantali Music Festival’s CEO (2020-2024) Suvi Innilä, Naantali’s museum director Anne Sjöström, designer Miia Liesegang who created the festival’s logo, and Ville Isopahkala, Head of Design at the advertising agency Duran Creative. Duran Creative is responsible for the final visual identity of the year and for creating its various applications on the basis of the artwork.
Naantali Music Festival’s new CEO, Emma Anttila, celebrates the collaboration between the arts:
“The artwork for 2025 perfectly reflects the themes of the festival program designed by our Artistic Director Elina Vähälä, where the countless shades of French Impressionism meet maritime sunrises and sunsets, as well as the endless nights.”
The program for the Naantali Music Festival will be announced in January 2025.
