The Finnish Institute in Copenhagen

an OASIS
in the heart of the city

Soila Kaivanto-Juhola

The Finnish Institute in Copenhagen is superbly situated in Nyhavn, a lively district full of outdoor restaurants. A gate leads you into a quiet courtyard and to a door “J”, behind which the little oasis of Finnish culture can be found.

The Finnish Institute in Copenhagen was founded in the early 1990s; the premises are rented from the Finnish Church in Denmark. The Finnish Society in Copenhagen and the Finnish School also operate under the same roof.

Since March last year, the Institute’s director and only employee has been MA Esa Alanne, 34. At the time of our interview there was a Finnish Photography Festival in Copenhagen with a number of exhibitions: Stefan Bremer’s photos in Øksnehallen, Jyrki Parantainen’s and Aino Kannisto’s works in the Dansk Fotografisk Center and a photo installation by Seppo and Markus Renvall in the Udstillingstedet 1% gallery. Exhibitions by Heli Rekula, Jouko Lehtola and OLO, alias Marko Vuokola and Pasi Karjula, were held in April and May.

A warm welcome

“Introducing new Finnish artists through a photographic exhibition here breaks new ground for Finnish contemporary art,” says Esa Alanne. “The exhibitions have received a very warm welcome.” Finnish photographic art has so far been shown three times on TV, two reviews have been published in which the exhibitions scored five stars out of six, and four major newspapers have had big puffs twice, making altogether eight articles. Two more articles are yet to come. Kunstmagasinet 1%, the leading Danish magazine on contemporary art, published a theme issue on Finnish photography. “These exhibitions seem to be particularly popular at the moment,” Alanne acknowledges. Along with the British Council and the French Institute, the Finnish Institute has recently attracted a lot of publicity.

“At this stage it is vital for us to invest in major happenings,” Alanne says. “The Danes love festivals – whenever a happening involves the word ‘festival’, they go rushing in!” By the day of the interview, the Finnish Photography Festival had had nearly 16,000 visitors, and thousands of people had been reached through the media.

Arts handyman

Esa Alanne took his MA degree at the Theatre Academy, in the Department of Dance, in 1991. The following year he moved to Denmark, and has since performed with all the major Danish dance groups and choreographed several performances, including some for theatre and opera. He teaches at each of the three state-owned theatre academies, and additionally, works with the 15-year-old figure skater Mikkeline Kierkgaard, who shows great promise in the field in Scandinavia. “She happens to be the only one to perform triple jumps in Denmark,” says Alanne proudly. He also works as a choreographer and artistic assistant for Team Denmark, the Danish equivalent of the Finnish Olympic Committee; their sights are set on a medal in the 2002 Olympics.

Esa Alanne is familiar with the art scene and knows his way about in Denmark. He speaks fluent Danish, and the reason for his moving to Denmark is quite obvious: he is married to a Danish woman. They have brought up their 6-year-old daughter to be fully bilingual.

The Institute’s duties

The Finnish Ministry of Education has defined the Institute’s duties. The Finnish Institute in Copenhagen is a cultural institute, a small art and culture production plant supported by the Ministry of Education for the purpose of importing Finnish art and culture to Denmark for the Danish. During Alanne’s term in office, the Institute’s activities have been targeted more at the Danish, rather than just Finns living in Denmark. “It is my task to promote Finnish art and culture here in Denmark, trying to make it more widely known on the art scene, and particularly among young people. It is most regrettable that the Danes still know Finland rather poorly,” Alanne says. “Many people here think that Finland is part of Russia and that Russian is a compulsory subject at school,” he tells us with astonishment. “Of course everybody knows of Jean Sibelius and Alvar Aalto from the cultural sphere, or Mika Häkkinen and Tarja Halonen from the non-cultural sphere, now that she is the new president. But it still remains a mystery to me how the Danes actually relate to Finland. In the fields of art and culture, people here are strongly oriented towards Central Europe, the United States and the British Isles.”

Plenty of work

“The radicals of the 60s and 70s in the theatre at least know who director Jouko Turkka is,” Alanne admits, ”which in my opinion proves that if they learn something about Finland when young, they will also have a closer connection with Finland later. This is exactly what I am aiming at: if we now get young professional photographers to see these exhibitions, young film-makers to visit our coming film week and young jazz professionals to listen to our jazz concert series, Finland and Finnish culture are looking at a far better future in Denmark. The foundation just has to be laid at some point.”

“The supply must not be too much high-brow, which only attracts narrow expert circles,” Alanne continues. “Sibelius and Aalto are the cornerstones of Finnish culture – in fact, Sibelius has become world culture, as artists compete to see who can play him best. But it is no longer a news item here that we have Sibelius. We had a famous Danish artist visiting the Institute and he asked me to find out where he could see Aalto’s latest works and, if possible, if I could also arrange a meeting with him!” Alanne is amused. Aalto is naturally very well known in Denmark, and Finnish architecture and Aalto’s heritage are highly honoured. The Aalto exhibition held last year attracted a lot of visitors, architects and other professionals. “In professional circles such basic facts about Finland are known, but how to appeal to the common people?” Alanne wonders. “Publicity is the tool I use to promote my cause.”

The future programme includes the Finnish Jazz Invasion, a joint project with the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, introducing the UMO Orchestra, Trio Töykeät, Jari Perkiönmäki, Krakatau, Rinneradio and Severi Pyysalo & Poppoo. The film festival that started at Easter showed new Finnish films. The LaKaSee quartet will perform Finnish classical music. Visual arts will be represented at least by an exhibition by Kuutti Lavonen.

“In its present form the Finnish Institute is a professional art production unit, financed by Finland and operating under the auspices of the Support Foundation of the Finnish Institute in Copenhagen, and yet it is a very mobile unit. The Institute is in a good position since we can produce something that has a market in Denmark. The point is how to make Finland known here in the best and most positive manner,” Alanne concludes.

Finlands- Instituttet Nyhavn 31 J DK-København K Tel. +45 3393 8851, fax +45 3393 3805 E-mail: info@finin.dk www.finin.dk