Maria Koolen Hellmin & Johanna Byström Sims

Maria Koolen Hellmin & Johanna Byström Sims: The McGurk Effect

The title The McGurk Effect refers to a perceptual phenomenon that ships an interaction between hearing and vision.

Maria Koolen Hellmin and Johanna Byström Sims are holding an artistic dialogue around a shared interest in science, space, transparency, musical form and language, which has lead to the finding of a common basis in the intersection of the material and the immaterial. 

It is an exploration of the shift that occurs when interpreting different forms of language, where distortions and gaps in perception arise.

In this context they direct their attention to the North wind. This wind, historically a common denominator for the Nordic countries, something that brings together, that spreads, that blows away, suddenly turns and brings back. 

At this point in history perhaps the North wind stirs up and fragments rather than keeps together?

The title The McGurk Effect refers to a perceptual phenomenon that ships an interaction between hearing and vision that occurs when the auditory component of a sound is paired with the visual component of another sound, generating an entirely new sensory experience.

MUU Helsinki Contemporary Art Centre

5.9.-4.10.2026

Tue-Fri 12.00-17.00

Sat-Sun 12.00-16.00

Free entry