A new museum, a festival, an exhibition... Every year, the cultural news feeds the desire to travel. In 2025, Helsinki, Aarhus, Naoshima, Rotterdam and London are the places to go.
Helsinki, Finland, for the Helsinki Bienniale 2025
Throughout the summer, this third edition of the biennial will unveil the work of 35 Finnish and international artists, including Iceland's Olafur Eliasson and Brazil's Ernesto Neto, in three venues: the Helsinki Art Museum, Esplanade Park and the Vallissari archipelago. With a common theme, "Shelter", to celebrate the links between man and nature.
June 8 to September 21, 2025.
Where to sleep, where to eat?
Solo Sokos Hotel Pier 4: a new green hotel on the seafront, with all-wood decor and a pleasant rooftop terrace.
Grön, a resolutely ethical and sustainable restaurant, awarded a Michelin star and a green star.
Aarhus in Denmark for the ARoS extension
ARoS, one of Scandinavia's most important art museums, will this year inaugurate a public square for outdoor art, an underground gallery for performances and videos, and above all the Dome, an incredible 16-meter-high, 40-meter-diameter "skyspace" designed by light artist James Turrell to awaken the senses while admiring the sky.
Where to sleep, where to eat?
Villa Provence, an ultra-cosy downtown boutique hotel inspired by the South of France.
Domestic, a Michelin-starred eco-responsible restaurant that celebrates the treasures of small local producers.
Naoshima in Japan for the Setouchi Triennale
The ultimate reference for contemporary art lovers, Setouchi Triennale is a "splintered" event, with installations and performances on several islands in the Seto Inland Sea, including Teshima and Naoshima. This year is marked by the inauguration on May 31 of the Naoshima New Museum of Art, dedicated to Asian art. This project by Tadao Ando, the Japanese starchitect's tenth, will join a long list of existing museums and galleries.
April 18 to November 9, 2025.
Where to sleep, where to eat?
Benesse House, a unique hotel-museum, another Tadao Ando creation. To sleep among the works...
Naoshima Ryokan Roka, near the village of Honmura, with 11 suites featuring minimalist design, traditional baths and a renowned table.
Rotterdam in the Netherlands for Fenix
Inaugurated on May 16, 2025, Fenix is a brand-new art museum on the theme of migration, housed in a port warehouse to which MAD Architects added a spectacular tornado-like staircase rising to the roof. The inaugural exhibition features works by Sophie Calle, Francis Alÿs and Jeremy Deller, while another presents an exceptional selection of 194 photographs chronicling migration from 1905 to the present day.
Where to sleep, where to eat?
The Usual Rotterdam, a cool, eco-friendly boutique hotel with bar-restaurant and library.
theusual.com/en/locations/rotterdam
nhow Rotterdam, a vertical hotel designed by Rem Koolhaas, with breathtaking views of the skyline, the Meuse and the Erasmus Bridge.
nhow-hotels.com/en/nhow-rotterdam
London, England for the V&A branches
Next May, the V&A (Victoria & Albert Museum) opens two new sites in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, east London: the V&A East Museum, where major exhibitions will take place, and the V&A East Storehouse, which includes the David Bowie Centre (opening in September 2025) with some 80,000 of the singer's objects covering six decades of his career.
Where to sleep, where to eat?
Grand Hotel Bellevue, a hotel nugget in a Victorian house in Paddington, designed by interior architect Fabrizio Casiraghi.
grandhotelbellevuelondon.com/en
High Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, the triple Michelin-starred chef's exclusive new 12-cover restaurant on the 60th floor of 22 Bishopgate. Vertiginous!
gordonramsayrestaurants.com/high/bishopsgate
Sidebar
Other eagerly-awaited new museums
In Almaty, Kazakhstan: the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, the first private museum of contemporary art in Central Asia, designed by Chapman Taylor.
In Abu Dhabi: the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, an addition to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, in a complex designed by Frank Gehry.
Trondheim, Norway: PoMo, an Art Nouveau post office transformed by India Mahdavi into a small museum featuring a private collection of modern and contemporary art.
In Los Angeles: Dataland, dedicated to the AI arts, in a building designed by Franck Gehry, and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, dedicated to the art of storytelling in film, comics, etc., in a campus designed by ADN Architects.
In New York: the extension to the New Museum designed by Rem Koolhaas and the new, more spacious address of the Studio Museum in Harlem, which houses works by black artists.
