IHME Helsinki 2020-2025 – Art, Science, Ecology book highlights six extraordinary contemporary art commissions in the public realm that were produced by contemporary art commissioning agency IHME Helsinki, Finland. IHME Helsinki strives to act responsibly by taking into account the needs of current and future generations near and far. Since humans are part of nature and completely dependent on the vitality of ecosystems, ecological sustainability lays the foundation for all other aspects of sustainability: social and cultural, as well as economic. IHME Helsinki is a pioneer of ecological sustainability on the Finnish art scene since 2017 and has produced knowledge about what is the role of art and art institution in the sustainability transformation. The invited award-winning artists respond to the ecological ethos of IHME Helsinki and explore diverse entanglements between human being and life sustaining systems like ocean, forest and soil and art´s potential to transform thinking and action. The featured commissioned art works span from spatial sound installation to scent ceremony, from online course to amateur band rehearsals and from baking bread for the soil to tracing the growth of a new forest in the frontline. Artists featured in the book: Jana Winderen, Katie Paterson, Amar Kanwar, Hiwa K, Cooking Sections and Zhanna Kadyrova.

Paula Toppila is Executive Director and Curator of IHME Helsinki in Finland. Toppila led the organizational change from the IHME Contemporary Art Festival (2009-2018) to IHME Helsinki (2019 -), which brings together art, science, and climate work supporting freedom of art within planetary boundaries. Recently she has curated IHME Helsinki Commissions by artists Zhanna Kadyrova (UA, 2025), Cooking Sections (UK, 2024), Hiwa K (Iraq, Kurdistan 2023), Amar Kanwar (India, 2022), Katie Paterson (UK, 2021) and Jana Winderen (NO, 2020). She served as chair of the Sustainable Visual Arts (FI) network and continues to serve in the network´s Steering Group. Toppila holds an MA degree in Art History, a degree in Leadership and Management and studies in Curating, Museology and Sustainable Change.