Summer exhibition at Helsinki City Museum invites visitors on a surprising journey through Helsinki
The immersive exhibition Places & Hoods – See Helsinki Anew offers fresh and unique points of view on the built and green environment of Helsinki and challenges the visitor to think about their own relationship with the ever-changing city.
The Places & Hoods – See Helsinki Anew exhibition, opening in the City Museum on 9 May, invites visitors on a colourful and surprising journey through the city. The entertaining, visually bountiful and functional exhibition allows the visitor to dive to the bottom of the sea, decipher hieroglyphs, pop by the souvenir kiosk, climb on top of Helsinki, browse the giant book of trees or build a prefabricated building. The exhibition features old and new wooden houses, suburban daycare centres, parks and rocky beaches, industrial milieus pulsating with life and monumental concrete architecture.
The exhibition is part of the City of Helsinki’s cultural environment programme 2023–2028, the key objective of which is to ensure that Helsinki remains a layered, diverse and architecturally and historically interesting capital city in the future.
“The Places & Hoods exhibition helps you find the diversity and richness of built and green Helsinki. It does not, however, shy away from painful and controversial value-based issues present in the ever-changing city, such as the re-emerging willingness to tear buildings down. That is why we are describing the exhibition as a carnevalistic pamphlet, as it is very light and joyous at first glance, but deep down its message is serious: many valuable cultural environments in Helsinki are threatened and will not be preserved without protection,” exhibition producer Jere Jäppinen says.
City Museum encourages residents to take pride in their home town
The exhibition encourages visitors to be more curious and learn more about the places and locations in Helsinki outside their own familiar haunts. The residents of Helsinki are invited to participate in a cleaning event in the First World War era fortifications in Pohjois-Haaga on 23 May, take part in the playful Helsinki tietäjä (Helsinki expert) quiz in the City Museum on Helsinki Day, 12 June, and watch streamed open lectures on e.g. the archaeological excavation in the Havis Amanda area. In addition to this, versatile summer events and guided biking and walking tours will be organised in Malmi and Malminkartano. Entry to the exhibition and all events is free of charge.
The Places & Hoods – See Helsinki Anew exhibition is produced by researcher Jere Jäppinen and designed by Jonathan Maxwell with Samppa Ranta as the graphic designer. Images by the volunteer photographers of the museum, or the Kuvaussakki group, play a key role in the exhibition.
Places & Hoods – See Helsinki Anew
9 May–15 September 2024
Helsinki City Museum, 4th floor
Aleksanterinkatu 16
Free entry
Open Mon–Fri 11:00–19:00, Sat–Sun 11:00–17:00
Photo: Maija Astikainen / Helsinki City Museum
