What’s happening here?

What’s happening here? (Mitäs täällä tapahtuu?) is an art exhibition designed with both adults and children in minds. The museum tour is guided by a booklet, which you can use to explore the exhibition. With its questions and activities, the booklet allows visitors to pause in front of the works and wonder, marvel and rejoice at, or experience any feelings the works may evoke. In the presence of art, emotions are free to flow.

The exhibition is built around six themes. The tour begins with the Secret Garden (Salainen puutarha), whose works guide visitors to beauty, tranquillity and mystery. Although the themes are intertwined with certain emotions, the feelings that the works evoke are neither right nor wrong. Emotions and feelings are always personal and transient. And that’s a good thing! It is reassuring to know that a sharp outburst of anger or a boisterous whirlwind of energy will, over time, settle into other emotions.

The name of the exhibition is borrowed from a Finnish artist, Juhani Linnovaara’s work Mitäs täällä tapahtuu (1977). The creatures in the painting lead visitors to a mood appropriate for approaching the exhibition and works, with curiosity and an open mind. The exhibition’s works are mostly from Art Museum Poikilo’s own collections. Yasushi Koyama was invited to be the exhibition’s star guest; his wooden sculptures are the epitome of cuteness. In Kino-Poikilo you can enter the forest’s embrace carried by a soundscape and stream of images. The exhibition is curated by the curator of Poikilo museums, Mari Lehtosalo, as well as by audience engagement coordinator, Irja Ahtovirta.

Plan your museum visit Visit Poikilo – Poikilo.

Katja Tukiainen, When the music ends, we kiss, 2004, oil and colored pencil on board, Kouvola Art Museum Poikilo, detail of the work. Photo by Mari Lehtosalo.