Helsinki residents are invited to take part in a unique museum tour on Wednesday 23 November at 17:00–22:00. In addition to discovering the museums’ exhibitions, visitors will get to enjoy high-quality art programming throughout the evening. The six museums along the route and Kunsthalle Helsinki will be open later than usual, and this open-door evening will feature various art forms such as dance, theatre, poetry, and live music. The museums are located within a short walking distance from one another, and visitors will be able to attend many performances over the course of the evening.
The event is organised with separate funding granted to the City of Helsinki’s Culture and Leisure Division for COVID-19 recovery. Helsinki wants to help the art field recover from the pandemic, support artists and provide residents with inspiring cultural events free of charge.
I am looking forward to this evening of experiences, organised together with museums and artists, which combines exciting exhibitions and a diverse programme of performing arts. We want to offer the people of Helsinki experiences during the darkest time of the year, job opportunities for the artists and interesting content for the museums.
Live jazz music, erotic poetry, dance performances and comedic opera
The audience will have an opportunity to attend the exhibitions and performances held at the museums along the route. The performances curated for each space for the tour will bring the exhibitions to life in a unique manner.
At Kunsthalle Helsinki, visitors can walk around the 12 Ceilings exhibition while listening to jazz band Django Collective Helsinki’s swing music that pays homage to the 1920s–1950s. The band will give several short musical performances over the course of the evening in the midst of Hannu Väisänen’s installation work.
At the Natural History Museum, Cristian Medel’s work combines music and projection and asks whether humanity might eventually go the way of the dinosaurs. To top things off, poet Mikko Räty’s stage poetry performance will delve into the ancient relatives of elephants. In the poems, the present day of our planet comes together with a past spanning billions of years.
At Helsinki City Museum, actors Aleksi Holkko and Hanna-Kaisa Tiainen will invite the attendees of the exhibition Hoes – Voices in Sex Work to listen to romanticised descriptions of sex work in world literature and erotic poetry.
At Villa Hakasalmi, the exhibition On the Streets of Crime and Love focusing on Kallio neighbourhood cinema history will be taken over by the improvisational theatre group Riskiryhmä. Throughout the rooms of the villa, audiences can immerse themselves into the adventures of Kallio cinema-inspired characters, who will interact with both the exhibition itself and the visitors.
In HAM, audience can delve into characters who have escaped from Viggo Wallensköld’s paintings, as portrayed by Johanna Kuuva and Topi Kohonen. What are the characters thinking about? Perhaps the musings of the mystical scientist Anatolij D. Mbdrinov on mycology and psychology.
The Design Museum will feature a site-specific dance performance by Ismo Dance Company. The piece Aesthetic Experience, inspired by Vuokko and Antti Nurmesniemi’s artistic thinking, is based on the items of the exhibition and their shapes and colours. The choreography may provide the audience with new perspectives into the world of the Nurmesniemis.
Sinebrychoff Art Museum will house the comedic mini opera Coffee Cantata composed by J.S. Bach in 1732, bringing the coffee-hysteria to next level. The piece will be performed thrice over the course of the evening, in the magnificent salon of the museum, by Johanna Engelbarth, Jasper Leppänen and Jyri Lahtinen, and the baroque band Ensemble Nylandia.
See the whole programme:tapahtumat.hel.fi (Link leads to external service)
Experience seven museums
Wednesday 23 November 2022 at 17:00–22:00
Free entry to all events.
Design Museum (Korkeavuorenkatu 23)
Aesthetic Experience – movement in motion at the Design Museum exhibition
Villa Hakasalmi (Mannerheimintie 13 B)
Eek! – criminals and lovestruck film characters take over Villa Hakasalmi
HAM Helsinki Art Museum (Eteläinen Rautatiekatu 8)
Viggo's characters in HAM – get to know them!
Helsinki City Museum (Aleksanterinkatu 16)
Hoes through the ages – erotic poetry and descriptions of sex work
Fantasiankutojat
Natural History Museum (North Rautatiekatu 13)
Miten ihminen tulisi määritellä? – Stage poetry at the Natural History Museum in Finnish
Will there be any people? – a dancing inquiry into mankind’s fate at the Natural History Museum
Sinebrychoff Art Museum (Bulevardi 40, House Museum, 2nd floor)
Coffee Cantata – coffee frenzy takes over Sinebrychoff Art Museum
Kunsthalle Helsinki (Nervanderinkatu 3)
Django Collective Helsinki jams amid ceilings