Major renovation: Helsinki Art Museum reopens with blockbuster Ai Weiwei show
The Helsinki Art Museum has reopened after a major renovation with a blockbuster show from Chinese artist Ai Weiwei
The Helsinki Art Museum, housed in the 1930s Tennispalatsi, or Tennis Palace, has reopened after a major renovation with a blockbuster show from Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. The 14-month renovation by local architects Arkkitehdit NRT, including a move into the building’s 12-metre high dome, has doubled exhibition and public space to 3,000 sq m. And it is these dome galleries that are playing host to ‘Ai Weiwei @ Helsinki’, a show which stretches through the artist’s early works from the 1980s to two new large scale pieces: White House, a traditional timber Qing Dynasty house, shipped wholesale to Helsinki; and Garbage Container, a large elegant wardrobe of sorts which is really an elegy for five homeless boys from Guizhou Province who died of carbon monoxide poisoning after lighting a fire in a bin to stay warm. Many of the works are in wood, a nod perhaps to Finland’s tradition of fine woodworking.
It’s been a good summer for Ai Weiwei with rave reviews and long queues for his show at the Royal Academy show in London. The Helsinki show is another triumph for the newly mobile artist.
HAM, as it is known, has a permanent collection of over 9,000 works of Finnish art, almost half of them dotted around local schools, libraries, hospitals and parks. The remodeled museum also includes a new space dedicated to emerging Finish artists. HAM’s renovation is part of a wider cultural push in central Helskinki. A new timber-framed Central Library, designed by ALA Architects, is set to open in 2018; as is an entirely underground second branch of the Amos Andersen Art Museum which will be dedicated to experimental and technology-based works.
More controversial is the proposed Helsinki outpost for the Guggenheim. Finalised designs for Europe’s third Guggenmheim, by Paris-based Moreau Kusunoki, were revealed this summer. The competition-winning design, a series of charred timber pavilions, has been well-received but there have been reservations about the cost of the new museum, to be covered by the Finnish Government if the plans are approved. The Helsinki City Board will decide whether to give the development the go-ahead later this year.
INFORMATION
Ai Weiwei @ Helsinki will run until 2 February, 2016; www.hamhelsinki.fi
ADDRESS
Eteläinen Rautatiekatu 8
00100 Helsinki
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
-
Find yourself at Six Senses Kyoto, the brand's breathtaking Japan debut
Six Senses Kyoto opens its doors boasting tranquil, luxurious interiors by Blink Design Group
By Danielle Demetriou Published
-
Shigeru Ban’s mini Paper Log House welcomed at The Glass House
'Shigeru Ban: The Paper Log House' is shown at The Glass House in New Canaan, USA as the house museum of American architect Philip Johnson plays host to the Japanese architect’s model temporary home concept
By Adrian Madlener Published
-
Artist Mickalene Thomas wrestles with notions of Black beauty, female empowerment and love
'Mickalene Thomas: All About Love’, a touring exhibition, considers Black female representation
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Frieze London 2023: what to see and do
Everything you want to see at Frieze London 2023 and around the city in our frequently updated guide
By Hannah Silver Last updated
-
The rich, creative life of Moomins creator Tove Jansson
Finnish artist and Moomins creator Tove Jansson was free, independent and nonconformist, as a new Paris exhibition delving into her life and work reveals
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané saturates Kiasma in scent, light and uncanny geometry
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané’s survey exhibition ‘A Leaf Shapes the Eye’ turns the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Finland into an immersive multisensory environment, and confronts pertinent issues about our place on earth
By Will Jennings Published
-
Ai Weiwei's largest-ever Lego artwork revealed at London’s Design Museum
At London’s Design Museum, Ai Weiwei has unveiled Water Lilies #1, a new Lego recreation of Claude Monet’s iconic painting. We explore the vast new work ahead of the Chinese artist’s major show at the museum until 30 July
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published
-
Ai Weiwei’s limited-edition cover for Wallpaper* explores surveillance, free speech, and humour as activism
Ai Weiwei takes over the limited-edition cover of the April 2023 issue of Wallpaper*. Ahead of the artist's major Design Museum show on 7 April, we explore the story behind the cover
By TF Chan Published
-
Royal College of Physicians Museum presents its archives in a glowing new light
London photography exhibition ‘Unfamiliar’, at the Royal College of Physicians Museum (23 January – 28 July 2023), presents clinical tools as you’ve never seen them before
By Martha Elliott Published
-
Museum of Sex to open Miami outpost in spring 2023
The Museum of Sex will expand with a new Miami outpost in spring 2023, housed in a former warehouse reimagined by Snøhetta and inaugurated with an exhibition by Hajime Sorayama
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published
-
Ai Weiwei to sign blank sheets of paper with UV ink for Refugees International in London this weekend
To mark Human Rights Day (10 December 2022), Ai Weiwei will take to Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park to sign sheets of A4 paper in UV ink, distributed free. We interview the artist to find out more
By TF Chan Published