Your last chance

to see Jaume Plensa´s amazing exhibition in EMMA, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, is to buy this book In the Midst of Dreams, fresh from the printer.
But hurry, there are only about 200 copies left.

Photo©Paula Hietaranta

www.emma.museum/shop/product_details.php?p=627

Reality bites in Kiasma

To draw and write on walls is normally forbidden, but if you are Dan Perjovschi you are paid for it.
The Romanian artist with sharp opinions about our world, our weird attitudes and prejudices was invited to Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki and got a big room for his messages in which the art and politics are intertwined.
There is a saying that one picture is worth one thousand words. It is certainly true in Dan Perjovschi´s pictures.
They don´t only tell, they make us laugh, think and understand, too. And hopefully make our world a better place.
The artist travels with his notebooks – a lot of the eye-openers are the same everywhere, but in every country he adds some local elements.
- Art is a way to change world, he believes.
- I want understanding and responsibility. Doing art is not enough, I see artist as somebody who looks at reality.

The word he paid attention in Helsinki: design!

 

The artist gave a lecture about his work in Kiasma Theatre 

before the opening of his exhibition: - Thirty years of communism did teach 

how to approach the problematic topics.

Dan Perjovschi´s exhibition Unframed is open until August 18th in Kiasma, Mannerheiminaukio 2, Helsinki. Open Tue 10–17, 
Wed–Fri 10–20.30, Sat 10–18, Sun 10–17.

www.kiasma.com/kiasma_en

Photos©Paula Hietaranta

The wizard of Ivana Helsinki

The poster portrait of Paola Suhonen is made 

of Ivana Helsinki´s fashion show pictures.

Paola Suhonen, our beloved fashion export and the soul of Ivana Helsinki, has been working in Finland and abroad for 15 years.

Now she is returning home, and you have the priviledge to have a look at the whole path of Ivana Helsinki fashion brand from the timid beginning to the bold designs to today in Design Museum in Helsinki. 

It is lovely to see that the clothes by this creative wizard are still as desirable today as they were when first presented - they are the most interesting mixture of drama and happiness, the prints are fresh, and the ideas are full of the joy of living and nostalgy we all can share. (At least we who have grown up in Finland.) 

Ivana Helsinki is still a family business, but you know what. 

You might have a affluent, supportive family and you might even have inherited some talents from your parents, but they cannot make nor buy success to you. You have to do it yourself. 

Just like Paola Suhonen has done. 

 Tyttökerho (Girl Club) AW 2004.

 

Rouva (Mrs) AW 2005.

 

Copperchain AW 2010.

 

Where The Fuck is My Sailor SS 2011.

Rotterdam AW 2013.

The exhibition Ivana Helsinki 15 – Coming Home is open in Design Museum´s Gallery until April 7th. 
www.designmuseum.fi/en/nayttely/ivana-helsinki-15-2/

If you want to know more about Paola´s boundless creativity (Ivana Helsinki is now an independent art, fashion and cinema brand) you can dive into her world here:

www.ivanahelsinki.com

Exhibition photos Paula Hietaranta

 

Hannu Väisänen, the one and only

Laulurausku/Singing Ray (2012). Oil on canvas, 130 x 110 cm.

There are artists who paint with brushes, but Hannu Väisänen paints with his trembling heart.

Isän kyyneleet/Father´s Tears (2012). Oil on canvas, 160 x 100 cm.

Silent Yellow (2012). Oil on canvas, 195 x 120 cm.

Hannu Väisänen´s new exhibition Singing Ray is open until March 13th in Galerie Forsblom, Lönnrotinkatu 5, 00120 Helsinki.
Opening times Tue-Fri 11am – 6pm, Sat 11am – 4pm, Sun 12am – 4pm.

www.galerieforsblom.com/news/hannu_vaisanen_exhibition/

Sky on a globe and time in a bag

The Arabic celestial sphere, a planetary simulation of the sky, 

is from the year 1873. 

This original time signal bag was lifted to the mast of the observatory roof and 

dropped down exactly at noon to tell the right time to the Helsinki port and 

central railway station. Next to it is the comet seeker dated 1830s.

These are only a few of many interesting things you find in the newly renovated Helsinki Observatory, which is now open to the public for the first time during it´s long academic history. 

The so-called Argelander´s refractor arrived in Helsinki 1835 

and was mainly used to measure the positions of comets. 

This new Centre for Astronomy introduces the visitors into the history and basics of astronomy and to the secrets of space on a nice way (hey, the target is get even the schoolchildren interested!).
There you can for example test how heavy you would be on another planet, see the sun rise and set, admire the planets photographed by different methods and touch an old piece of meteorite.
And ask a question still unanswered: how and why did all this get started? 

The building of Helsinki Observatory was designed by architect 

Carl Ludvig Engel (1778–1840) and built between 1831 and 1834.

The address of Observatory is Kopernikuksentie 1, just at the end of Unioninkatu. Opening hours are Tuesday-Wednesday and Friday-Saturday from 12 to 4 pm, Thursday from 12 to 8 pm. On Sundays and Mondays it is closed.

www.observatorio.fi/english/index.html#

Photos © Paula Hietaranta

Welcome, Gudrun Sjöden!

Gudrun Sjöden has been for ages a household name of the textile design not only in her homeland Sweden but also all around the world.

Until last week her Finnish customers (and here are tens of thousands of them!) could buy the clothes, home textiles and accessories by this Pippi Longstocking of the Scandinavian design only on the internet. Or during their trips to Stockholm.
But now, since last Friday, we have Gudrun´s concept shop here in the heart of Helsinki.
It is a happy place to everybody in love with her comfortable, colourful, eco-friendly clothes, and you can be 17 or 70 years old, thick or thin, tall or tiny, it does not matter. Layering is the thing here, and the more the merrier!
But better to be careful – it might happen that you came to buy a scarf and in addition to that bought three T-shirts and a doormat.

Address of the shop is Erottajankatu 19, Helsinki, and it is open Mon-Fri 10 am to 7 pm, Sat from 10 am to 5 pm.

www.gudrunsjoden.com

Photo©Paula Hietaranta

Japanese delicacies in Helsinki

No, this time it is not about food but about textile fibres.

The wonderful new exhibition Fiber Future – Japan´s Textile Pioneers in Design Museum introduces us 30 leading textile designers in Japan and shows us the amazing power of creative and investigating mind.

    

W-Orbit by Akio Hamatani (2010). Huge rayon sculpture is made 

in collaboration with Chiaki Murakami, a specialist in dyeing 

with wood-ash lye and fremented leaves of the indigo plant.

 

Hideho Tanaka combines in his Vanishing and Emerging sculpture 

(2009) cotton, flax and paper.

 

Shape of Red 1 (2009) by Shigeo Kubota is an amazing sculpture 

made of nylon, sisal hemp and plain weave. 

His art of weaving is inherited – Mr. Kubota was born 

into a family of traditional weavers.

 

 

Umi kara no okurimono: Air, X (A Gift from the Sea:Air, 2010) 

by Yasuko Iyanaga is made of tie-dyed spun silk and wire.

The exhibition opened yesterday and is open until May 5th.

www.designmuseum.fi

 Photos © Paula Hietaranta