New works by Silja Rantanen and Outi Pieski vivify the facades of school and day care buildings in Helsinki

Silja Rantanen: Katsura, 2025

For the new artwork on the facade of Gymnasiet Lärkan, artist Silja Rantanen has forever set in stone her large pencil drawing. In the work Katsura, graphite-coloured lines cut across the smooth, paper-like white concrete surface, creating a multi-layered grid.

The grid motif has featured in Rantanen’s works for several decades. With the new work, Rantanen’s expression enters into a dialogue with modernist tradition and Japanese aesthetics. Katsura is a 17th-century imperial villa in Kyoto that has had a significant impact on spatial thinking in modern Western architecture.  

The title of the work suggests an impression. Rantanen’s work is not based on the imperial villa’s architecture but on visual observations from the artist’s kitchen garden. Rantanen started exploring the grit motif in the 1990’s and after visiting Japan, she also began constructing a bamboo fence in her home garden. To date, this work has been ongoing for more than twenty years. For the artwork at Gymnasiet Lärkan, the artist drew the fence section by section. The final piece is a combination of drawings, and in reality the fence can’t ever be seen in the way the work depicts it. In the nine-metre-long piece, the fence appears in its natural scale. The work also captures the light of a winter night’s moon, which makes the shadows cast by the fence undulate on the surface of the snow.

“The distinctive character of the work does not arise from the pattern alone but from its casting in terrazzo concrete. The drawn lines cast into concrete appear very different from the intangible lines on paper, let alone on lines viewed on the computer screen. They are exciting and full; moments of creation petrified in time”, Rantanen says.

Silja Rantanen (b. 1955) is a pioneer of conceptual painting in Finland. Her works were featured in the 1986 Venice Biennale, themed Art and Science. She is known for works that address architectural space and observation. Rantanen has created public artworks for, among others, Stockholm Arlanda Airport in Sweden and the Embassy of Finland in Berlin. Katsura is the first public artwork by Rantanen commissioned for the City of Helsinki’s art collection.

Outi Pieski: ČSV áigi, 2025 

The artist Outi Pieski’s series of works, ČSV áigi (ČSV áika), brings Sámi culture to Keski-Pasila. A ČSV clock glimmers on the facade of Pasila School and Day Care that offers Sámi language instruction. Inside the building, light radiates from a Sámi cradle ball in the large entrance hall. Time is present in both pieces. 

The artwork is based on the letter sequence ČSV. “Emerging in the 1970s at the crest of the Sámi cultural and political movement, the letter sequence carries various meanings that are site-specific and change over time, the most common being Čájet Sámi Vuoiŋŋa, ‘Show Sámi spirit’. These three letters are also the three most commonly used letters in the Sámi languages. ČSV has begun to gain wider recognition in contexts related to indigenous people’s rights and nature conservation, and the letter sequence can also refer to a person or group that supports the Sámi”, says Outi Pieski.

The ČSV clock on the school’s facade has hour markers typical to Sámi culture. Some of these gilded, unruly markers – laukkaset – have escaped the strict order of time and begin to gravitate towards their own time, a Sámi time. The cradle ball (komsio ball) suspended from the entrance hall’s ceiling glows after sunset. For the Sámi, a cradle ball has traditionally served as a protector of the child and is hung above the cradle (komsio in Sámi). At the school, the cradle ball protects the pupils and day care children. 

Outi Pieski (b. 1973) is a Sámi artist living and working in Utsjoki. Her works explore themes of Sámi decolonisation, indigenous people’s rights, and their relationship with nature. She often uses Sámi duodji (handicraft) techniques, and her works may take the form of paintings, installations, sculptures, or photographs. Pieski’s works are included in major art collections. In 2024, she had a major solo exhibition at Tate St. Ives in the UK. The artwork for Keski-Pasila school is Pieski’s first permanent public artwork in Helsinki. 

The new public artworks were financed in accordance with Helsinki’s Percent for Art principle: A part of the city’s budget for construction and renovation projects is set aside for new public artworks. HAM Helsinki Art Museum acts as an art expert in these projects, and the works are added to the City of Helsinki’s art collection, managed and curated by HAM. The collection already includes more than 200 works implemented through the Percent for Art principle.