After a successful first edition in 2025, the Guarding the Baltic Sea project returns this year, bringing together a new group of artists from five European countries to collaborate and raise awareness of the ecological challenges facing the Baltic Sea.

This year’s edition explores the following question: What does it mean to become guardians of the Baltic Sea in a time of environmental emergency and escalating geopolitical tensions?

To address this question, Guarding the Baltic Sea brings together artists from Finland, Estonia, Poland,Germanyand France for a collective fieldwork experience along the Finnish coastline and archipelago. The programme combines an intensive group research retreat with individual residency periods. Activities are based on Vartiosaari Island in Helsinki — whose name translates as “Guard Island.”

The programme also includes visits to marine research stations, fostering exchanges of knowledge and methods between artists and scientists.

Discover all the project’s artists,eventsand latest updates on this page!

Guarding the Baltic Sea is a project by EUNIC Finland and Goethe-Institut Finnland, French Institute of Finland, the Polish Embassy in Helsinki, and the Estonian Embassy in Helsinki.

EUNIC — European Union National Institutes for Culture — is Europe’s network of national cultural institutes and organisations, with 39 members from all EU member states and associated countries.