Henna Asikainen: To Own Both Nothing and the Whole World

To Own Both Nothing and the Whole World by artists Henna Asikainen and Roua Horanieh will be presented at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead during Refugee Week 2025. As part of the Moomin 80th Anniversary celebrations, this exhibition is co-commissioned and co-produced by Counterpoints Arts and Baltic, and supported by the Moomin Characters Ltd.

The project explores ideas of home and belonging, reflecting on the impact of displacement on both human and more-than-human worlds. Recognising that nature is our first habitat without which no home can be built. The materials used in the work are foraged from the surrounding landscape, each carrying its own enchanting story—bringing communities together in unexpected and meaningful ways. People with experience of migration and displacement have been a crucial part in developing the project.

The exhibition also encompasses migratory birdnests with their many stories of movement, resilience and adaptation and 200-year-old tree roots planted during the Napoleonic Wars, and which were uprooted by a recent storm. Willow and other foraged wonders from community gardens feature within the artwork alongside a tree felled by a storm in local suburbia, a reminder of nature’s unpredictability and the cycles of loss and renewal.

Through this assemblage of living histories, To Own Both Nothing and The Whole World invites reflection on the interconnected journeys of people, plants, and place—foregrounding the invaluable contribution migrants bring to this country, and the power and beauty of nature and community in shaping our shared world.

The project aims to raise awareness around displacement and climate, to create the opportunity for dialogue with asylum seekers, refugees and migrants around the perception of their migration, their future and how they can thrive in a new environment. It also enables the opportunity for dialogue within the local area on what it takes to welcome a migrant community. Many different elements make a nest, and it takes many to create it, weaving together different elements to create something solid that can hold and shelter someone. By creating a story that lives on in people’s memories and thoughts, there is the potential to change minds and behaviours.

'To Own Both Nothing and the Whole World' exhibition at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art from 11 June to 6 July. The gallery is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 10am-6pm. For more information, please visit Baltic's website (opens a new window).

Photo: Saya Rose Naruse