Helsinki Card - Sight of the Month
Birch-bark shoes and Shamanism
The exhibition “ITE – A Kalevala Mindscape” in the Gallen-Kallela Museum shows interpretations of the Finnish national epic Kalevala by contemporary folk artists. This fascinating exhibition will be on display through the whole autumn season.
The Gallen-Kallela Museum, the venue of the exhibition, is a castle-like studio home in Jugend-style of the artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865–1931). He was also interested in folk culture and the Kalevala epic was a life-long passion for him.
ITE – A Kalevala Mindscape exhibition focuses on the ways in which themes from the Kalevala epic of folk poetry find expression in contemporary folk art, which in Finland is also known as ITE art. ITE is short for the Finnish Itse Tehty Elämä (Do-It-Yourself Life), referring to the work of self-taught artists as opposed to professionally trained ones.
The Kalevala has not been a particularly common starting point in Finnish folk art. The connection of ITE art with the Kalevala emerges, in fact, more through its mood than in other ways. The Kalevala can be understood as a mindscape providing the setting and inspiration of the works.
The exhibits include ingenious creations by more than 20 contemporary artists drawing upon vernacular and everyday resources of culture for their themes, style, and forms of expression. On display are e.g. the world's largest, and smallest, birch-bark shoes, embroidered representations of Aino, a female character of the Kalevala, a bear made of tractor tyres, and images of a Kalevala shaman journeying to the netherworld.
The exhibition is also one of the events marking the 175th anniversary year of the Kalevala. It has been produced in association with the Finnish Union of Rural Education and Culture and the Kalevala Society.
Gallen-Kallela Museum
Gallen-Kallelantie 27, Espoo
tel. +358 9 849 2340
Open: Tue–Sat 11–16, Sun 11–17 (Mon closed)
Entrance fee: Adults €8, persons under 18 and Helsinki Card holders free
Text: Helsinki Expert / Pirjo Kauppinen
Picture: Birch-bark Museum of Erkki Pekkarinen,
Photo by Minna Haveri
