BIO
Jaakko Autio is a Finnish sound artist whose immersive multi-channel installations interweave choral voices, collective listening and environmental dialogue. Rather than presenting a message, Autio builds experiential frameworks, structures that become meaningful only through the listener’s presence, time and attention. His works have been presented in museums and festivals across Finland and internationally, reaching over 75,000 visitors in 2024.
Recent highlights include the large-scale participatory installations OWLA (Oulu Art Museum, 56 singers, 2023) and Harmony in Displacement (26 Ukrainian and Finnish performers, 2024), as well as the ongoing ON THE BORDER series (2022–), developed at the Estonian–Russian frontier. Across these contexts, listening operates as a civic practice. The work shifts attention from representation to lived, embodied presence. By making room for people rather than representing them, the installations often reveal unexpected clarity. When given time, trust and attention, people speak with wisdom.
In recent years, Autio’s work has unfolded through longer artistic cycles rather than isolated projects. In 2024, he realised an extensive body of installations within the RE- series, focusing on return, resonance and embodied listening as a way of reorienting attention to the present moment. Building on this, his current practice moves towards the INTER- series, a multi-year exploration of relationality, shared space and interdependence across human, environmental and more-than-human contexts. Projects such as INTER SPECIES extend the earlier focus on listening into ecological and multispecies terrains, treating sound as a medium of connection rather than representation.
Autio’s practice combines community engagement, experimental recording and both analogue and digital tools, ranging from spatial choir techniques, prepared piano and cymatics to real-time EEG interaction and generative video. In addition to works such as RE-VERB, RE-FLORIS and ORIGINATION, his current major projects include RE-BIRTH (MUU Gallery, Helsinki 2025), a 40-channel installation with a breath choir, spatialised piano, performance and poetic headphone monologues, and INTER SPECIES (2025–2026), a transnational eco-acoustic initiative across the Baltic Sea region in collaboration with scientists, choirs and local communities.
Educated at Metropolia (BA, 2008) and the Theatre Academy (MA, 2013), Autio works from his studio in Toijala, Pirkanmaa, developing models for ecological, participatory and interspecies sound art across installation, performance and contemporary art contexts.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work begins with a simple question: what becomes possible when we listen long enough, together and from within? I create immersive environments with voices, breaths, bodies and places, composing with proximity and attention as much as with sound. The installation is not a fixed statement. It is an experiential framework that asks the listener to participate. Meaning is not delivered. It emerges in time, in the body and in relation.
My recent practice unfolds through long-term artistic cycles, allowing questions to deepen over time rather than resolve within a single project. In today’s cultural climate, the human question is often reduced to claims about identity as a stable fact. I am more interested in identity as something lived, relational, changing and porous. Through breath, shared silence and spatial sound, the work invites an encounter that does not need certainty to be real. Listening, for me, is a form of care and a way of knowing, one that can hold complexity without forcing closure.
My process is collaborative and site-specific. I work with choirs and local communities, build recording situations that privilege trust, and use technology as a practice of care, including multi-channel spatial composition, generative video, tactile sound objects, and at times EEG-driven interaction. I am drawn to fragile interdependence between people, between species, and between inner and outer ecologies.
Ultimately, I hope the work offers a place to be unfinished without collapsing. A space where vulnerability is not a problem to solve, but a condition of connection. Each project is an invitation to breathe and listen together, within and beyond ourselves.
Curriculum Vitae
Jaakko Autio.
Sound and media artist.
Education.
2010–2013 Uniarts Helsinki / Theatre Academy (TEAK), Sound Design (MA).
2003–2008 Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Film Sound Design (BA).
Collections.
2025 Aine Art Museum (Tornio): RE-VERB, collection acquisition.
Upcoming or ongoing installations.
2026 Oulu City Museum / Arrival
2026 Ylivieska, Akustiikka galleria hall / Inter
2026 Helsinki / Inter-Species.
Installations and exhibitions (selected).
Lead artist works.
2025 Aine Art Museum (Tornio) / Snowball Effect / Re-Verb, Chapter II.
2025 MUU Galleria (Helsinki) / Re-Birth.
2025 One-to-One Festival (Oeiras, PT) / Nature Within.
2025 One-to-One Festival (Oulu) / Nature Within.
2023–2025 Oulu Museum of Art – care homes in Kainuu & Ostrobothnia / The Song of Time.
2025 Möhkönvirta Contemporary Art Exhibition / Re-Ditus.
2025 Galleria Villa Suruton (Savonlinna) / Re-Floris.
2025 KITA Galleria (Joutsa) / Re-Verb, Chapter I.
2025 Aletheia Fest / TransLate.
2024–2025 NART Galleria (Narva, EE) / Possible Worlds.
2025 ARS Kunstilinnaki (Tallinn, EE) – Under the Surface / Mirror.
2024–2025 Tartu Art Museum (EE) / The Secrets of the Leaning Building.
2024 Demolition Art Exhibition (Helsinki) / OrigiNation.
2024 Taidekeskus AHJO (Joensuu) – Urbana Hortus / Nature Within.
2024 Haihatus Summer Exhibition / Harmony in Displacement.
2024–2025 Annantalo (Helsinki) / Table for Two (Pöytä kahdelle).
2023 Oulu Museum of Art / Owla.
2023 Vene Teatern COMPOSTER Festival (Tallinn) / OrigiNation, Part III.
2023 Tampere-Maja (Tartu, EE) / OrigiNation, Part II.
2023 Voipaalan taidekeskus (Sattuman Vaara) / Table for Two (Pöytä kahdelle).
2023 Varsinaista kulttuuria -project / Table for Two (Pöytä kahdelle).
2023 Joensuu Art Museum, M_itä Biennial / OrigiNation, Part I.
2023 Museosaari (Aholansaari) / Kohta.
2023 Malmitalo Gallery (Helsinki) / Table for Two, Part V (Pöytä kahdelle, osa V).
2023 Volter Kilpi (Kustavi), Literature Week / Table for Two, Part IV (Pöytä kahdelle, osa IV).
2023 Olohuone Festival (Turku) / Table for Two, Part III (Pöytä kahdelle, osa III).
2022 Porvoo Art Factory / On the Border, Part V (Rajalla, osa V).
2022 World Cities Culture Summit (Helsinki Opera House) / On the Border, Part IV (Rajalla, osa IV).
2022 KOGO Galleria (Tartu, EE) / On the Border, Part III (Rajalla, osa III).
2022 NART Galleria (Narva, EE) / On the Border, Part II (Rajalla, osa II).
2022 Turku Main Library, Music Department / Table for Two, Part I (Pöytä kahdelle, osa I).
2022 Tallinn Music Week (Narva, Kreenholm) / On the Border, Part I (Rajalla, osa I).
2022 Galleria Aarni (Espoo) / Intimacy, Part III (Läheisyys, osa III).
2021 Kehä Festival (Oulu) / Intimacy, Part II (Läheisyys, osa II).
2021 Ääreen Event (Oodi, Helsinki) / Helsinkini (3D animation).
2021 Galleria5 – Pimento (Oulu) / The Eye of the Source.
2021 Kulttuurikauppila Residency (Ii) / Piste Iin päälle.
2021 M_itä Biennial (Mikkeli Art Museum) / Sound Time, Part II.
2021 Retretti (Punkaharju) / Sound Time, Part I.
2020 VR choir installation / From the Same Tree.
2020 Akusmata Gallery (Helsinki) / Kinaesthetic Poetry.
2019 Nivala Körtti Festival / Grace (Armo).
2019 Free Art Space (Helsinki) / The Other Space.
Collaborations
2025 Galleria Aski (Turku) / Re-Sound (Autio & Akasaka).
2024 YÖ Galleria (Helsinki) / Meeting Point (Autio & Akasaka).
2021 Seinäjoki Art Hall / Waiting Room (Odotustila). dir. Haapoja & Gustafsson.
2021 Galleria Nykyaika (Tampere) / Helmipunoja. dir. Hokkanen.
2021 Mad House (Helsinki) / Sati Dérive. dir. Matruka.
2021 Gallery Hippolyte (Helsinki) / Topics of Weightlessness. dir. Rantama & Holländer.
2019 Zone2Source (Amsterdam) / Waiting Room (Odotustila). dir. Haapoja & Gustafsson.
2018 Gjesteatelieret (Vadsø, NO) / Clown Conference. dir. Autio & Rämä.
2012 Theatre Museum / Did You Hear? exhibition / Singer.
2008 Design Museum (Helsinki) / Fennofolk New Nordic Oddity / Turndramatiks. dir. Masalin.
Selected theatre productions (sound design).
2026 Stoa (Helsinki) / Body Notes (MimoArt Company). dir. Lindahl. Sound design: Autio.
2025 Helsinki City Theatre – 12 Gifts for Santa Claus. Dir. Virtanen. Sound design & music (Autio). Annual Christmas run, 2017–present.
2024 Tanssin talo (Helsinki) / Body Notes – Special Edition. dir. Lindahl.
2023 Café de la Dance Festival (HU) / Body Notes. dir. Lindahl.
2018–2024 Helsinki City Theatre / 12 Gifts for Santa. dir. Virtanen.
2021 Turku City Theatre / Gladys. dir. Maharaj.
2021 Kulttuurimylly – Valon juhla (Kalasatama) / Liekki. dir. Baric.
2020 Cultural Centre Caisa / 30%OFF. dir. Mäkinen.
2019 Helsinki City Theatre / Angry Widow. dir. Virtanen.
2019 Ahaa Theatre / Bette-D. dir. Vapaavuori.
2018 Tsuumi & ensemble / Beyond Space and Time. dir. Mäkinen.
2018 Hurjaruuth / Touch. dir. Rämä & Autio.
2017 MimoArt Company (Stoa) / Body Notes. dir. Lindahl.
2017 Kouvola City Theatre / Gravity Problem. dir. Linnapuomi.
2016 Kuopio New Summer Theatre / Tapsa’s Star. dir. Sorjonen.
2015 Swedish Theatre / Nicken – My Love. dir. Hasselblatt.
2015 Ahaa Theatre / Wolf. dir. Virtanen.
2015 Kuopio New Summer Theatre / Olavi Virta (Soloist). dir. Virtanen.
2015 Kokkola City Theatre / Happy Family. dir. Moila.
2015 Kokkola City Theatre / Jumpy. dir. Ojala.
2014 Kokkola City Theatre / Forest Giant. dir. Aho.
2014 Kokkola City Theatre / Maria’s Children. dir. Pesonen.
Teaching (selected).
Uniarts Helsinki / Theatre Academy (TEAK): Fundamentals of sound design for dance artists (guest lecturer).
Uniarts Helsinki / Theatre Academy (TEAK): From designer to convener and director of works (guest lecturer).
SAMK (Kankaanpää): Media art course (2025).
Rantasalmi Upper Secondary School: Studio basics and sound dramaturgy.
University of Lapland (Rovaniemi): Sound art (upcoming teaching engagement).
Written works.
2013 Wholesome Sound, MA thesis, Theatre Academy (updated 2019).
2008 Space, Time, and Silence in Theatre Sound Design, BA thesis, Metropolia.
Grants (selected).
2025 TAIKE General Fund, six-month working grant.
2025 Oulu2026 / Arrival (group working grant).
2025 Oulun Valistustalo / Arrival (group working grant).
2024 SKR, project grant.
2023 TAIKE, Northern Ostrobothnia & Kainuu Fund.
2023 TAIKE, North Karelia Fund.
2023 Kimmo Kaivanto Foundation.
2023 EVL Foundation for the Support of Science and Art.
2022 TAIKE / Table for Two (Autio & Väyrynen).
2022 City of Turku / Table for Two (Autio & Väyrynen).
2022 TAIKE, COVID grant.
2021 SKR, 3-month residency grant (NART).
2021 TAIKE, COVID grant.
2020 City of Helsinki / Sati Dérive (sound walk).
2020 TAIKE, COVID grant.
2020 AVEK / Intimacy (installation).
2020 SKR, COVID grant.
2020 TAIKE / Sound Asleep (Moriwaki & Autio).
2019 AVEK / From the Same Tree (installation).
2019 TAIKE / Grace (installation).
2019 SKR / Grace (installation).
2018 Kyösti Kallio Foundation / Grace (installation).
Residencies.
2025 AARK Residency (Korppoo).
2025 Tornio Museum Residency.
2024 Haihatus Residency.
2024 Old Mine Residency (Outokumpu).
2023 Tohmajärvi Artist Residency.
2023 AARK Residency (Korppoo).
2022 NART Residency (Narva, EE).
2022 Old Mine Residency (Outokumpu).
2021 Hakoniemi Residency (Rääkkylä).
2021 Kulttuurikauppila Residency (Ii).
2021 AARK Residency (Korppoo).
2020 Old Mine Residency (Outokumpu).
2020 AARK Residency (Korppoo).
2018 Gjesteatelieret (Vadsø, NO).
Memberships.
AV-Arkki. Gramex. Kuvasto. MUU ry. Teosto. Teme/SVÄL. YÖ ry. Nordic Artists’ Union.
Contact.
Rapusaarentie 2, 37800 Toijala, Finland.
+358 44 069 1113.
jaakkoaution@gmail.com.
instagram.com/jaakkoautio/.
JAAKKO AUTIO – MEDIA ARTIST 