In April 2024, the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum will be taken over by the themes of repair, maintenance, and cleaning
Selected worksfrom the open call provided the impetus for curating other content
The exhibition FIX: Care and Repair, produced in collaboration with experts from the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum Helsinki, brings together architecture, design, and contemporary art. The exhibition highlights the repair of objects and buildings, environmental maintenance, cleaning, and the aesthetics associated with dirt and wear. In the exhibition museums are also portrayed as places of care, where collection management and conservation uphold a carefully curated collection of objects.
FIX: Care and Repair will be open at the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum Helsinki
from April 26th to December 31st, 2024.
The curation of the exhibition is managed by a multidisciplinary team from the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum.
In spring 2023, the museums held an open call seeking proposals related to maintenance, care, and preservation. The selection emphasized topics and perspectives that have received less attention in the fields of architecture and design. By the deadline, over 130 applications were received from the fields of art, craftsmanship, design, and architecture. The jury for the open call chose four new contemporary art pieces to be realized for the exhibition. These commissioned works also served as a catalyst for curating other content in the exhibition.
Selected Works
Artist Sini Henttu’s video series Fantasman sylissä (In Phantasma’s Arms) invites imagining alongside chairs borrowed from the museums’ workspaces. The focal point of the piece, besides the objects themselves, is the sounds they produce and the affective experiences felt in the body.
Architect Liisa Ryynänen’s piece Inventaario (Inventory) challenges us to reflect on our relationship with everyday office aesthetics, shabbiness, and wear and tear. Ryynänen asks how we could openly approach suspended ceilings or low-quality wall-to-wall carpeting added to the spaces by their users.
Architect and musician Helmi Kajaste and poet Petra Vallila create a sitespecific Siivousmusiikkia (Cleaning Music) sound installation for the museum space, combining spoken poetry and concrete (cleaning) music. The piece explores what sound constitutes interference and what belongs to the space.
Artist Jessica Andrey Bogush welcomes you to explore the museum collections through an installation, focusing on the themes of care, exclusion and invisibility. Featuring contributions from curator and researcher Max Hannus and artist Ville Laurinkoski Jessica’s proposal explores the gesture of an
invitation, bringing the question of what is to queer an archive and how caring for one often leads to the death of another.
For more information, please contact:
press@designmuseum.fi
Ilona Hildén, The Museum of Finnish Architecture
+358 45 7731 0468
Minni Soverila, Design Museum Helsinki
+358 45 197 3003
Two familiar museums together towards the new! The Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum Helsinki, with their internationally unique collections, will in the near future form a new national architecture and design museum. At the beginning of 2024, the two museums’ foundations will merge to become the new Finnish Architecture and Design Museum Foundation. A museum company established by the foundation will maintain the future operations of the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum Helsinki. A new building is being planned for the new museum, situated in the Makasiiniranta area of Helsinki’s South Harbour. For the next few years, the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum Helsinki will continue with a joint programme at their familiar addresses in the Kaartinkaupunki district of the city. More information about the new Architecture and Design Museum can be found on the project website: admuseo.fi
Published: 20 December, 2023