New art for educational institutions in Helsinki – Love Helsinki returns to Baana

Anu Tuominen’s artworks at Käpylä Comprehensive School

Using found items and recycled materials, Anu Tuominen has created a series of artworks for Käpylä Comprehensive’s Untamo building. Collecting material forms a key element of Tuominen’s work. In her artworks, lost woollen socks, buttons, flea market finds from medals to rulers, old books and pieces of crochet created by Tuominen herself invite curiosity, close perception, and layers of memories. Using insightful analogues and plays on words and materials, the artworks transform ordinary objects into new, unexpected forms.

The series Educational Boards comprises four pieces. These assemblages invite viewers to study colour theory, visit ski tracks, calculate ‘maths’ and explore nature. In each framed artwork school children can discover a multitude on small observations on colour, movement, counting and nature.

The Anchored, Perennials and Chocolate cake assemblages have been made from collected buttons. Tuominen can transform an ordinary button into a delicious chocolate praline or an anchor for a nautical chart. The odd socks and mittens of the Lost and Found series have been installed by the main lobby’s coatracks. In these works, lone woollen accessories have found new partners based on colour and shape. Taking over the old fire hydrant cabinet Tuominen also created an artwork inspired by food cupboards.

Anu Tuominen (b. 1961) is a sculptor and conceptual artist who uses abandoned and found items, handicrafts techniques and recycled materials in her works. Her artworks often feature wordplay that inspires new interpretations of everyday objects, and her work is based on decades of collecting materials. This is her way of observing the world and, in turn, items found at flea markets, on shorelines and in bins blossom into new discoveries for others too. “Collecting is liberating. You are free to roam, look around, wander in every direction.”

Jussi Valtakari and Antti Ylönen’s artworks at Daycare Aurinkokallio 

Jussi Valtakari and Antti Ylönen’s series ‘Once upon a time...’ fills the lobby walls at Daycare Aurinkokallio in Kannelmäki. The artwork features dioramas of different sizes, inspired by fairytales collected from around the world. 

Dioramas are often used in Natural History Museums as displays, and a diorama allows visitors to examine a three-dimensional scene through a window. Multiculturalism was important to the artists in choosing which fairytales to make into dioramas. Included are e.g. Red Riding Hood, The Ugly Duckling, and The Nightingale. The thirteen works also include a peephole with a free imagination diorama that children can invent their own stories for. The materials used include wood, sand, soil, stones, linen oakum, iron wire, metal leaf and photographs. Watercolour was the primary medium used for painting and colouring. The intricate lighting was created in collaboration with Jyrki Sinisalo. 

Antti Ylönen is a visual artist who lives in Ii and started as a ceramicist in the mid ’80s. Wood often plays a key role in Ylönen’s sculptures, along with various other materials and combinations of them. Environmental art and photography have also had a pivotal role in his artistic career. 

Jussi Valtakari lives and works in Taivalkoski. He studied at the former Lahti Art School, Lahti Art Institute and Tampere School of Art and Communication. Recently he’s worked with miniature wooden sculptures that have their roots in the Finnish tradition of puhdetyö, or ‘twilight work’, referring to work that was typically done indoors during evening hours. 

Ylönen and Valtakari have been working together for almost ten years. Their joint artworks have been displayed at Mänttä Art Festival, Aine Art Museum, Kajaani Art Museum, Imatra Art Museum, and Galleria Sculptor. They also produced the public artwork Hive for Lapland Central Hospital in 2023.

A renewed and refreshed Love Helsinki returns to Baana

The piece Love Helsinki, created by visual artist Janne Siltanen (b. 1976), is a two-part piece that brings to life the urban space and light transport routes of the city centre, comprising both a concrete sculpture spelling out the word ‘Helsinki’ and a mural on the retaining wall.

The original granite retaining wall was demolished to allow for the construction of a new pedestrian overpass. Once the new wall was complete, Siltanen created an extended and updated version of his mural for the same site. The concrete letters on the floor of Baana, which have proven popular among skateboarders, have been moved slightly to the south but remain part of the whole.

The new mural is significantly bigger than the original one at around 35 x 5 metres, and the gleaming reds and yellows of its colour scheme bring a strong visual presence to the environment. The piece features the same recognisable figures and artistic style as Siltanen’s previous mural, but now in extended form and with a new take adapted to the updated location and space. The mural was painted with spray paints and latex paints on concrete.

Janne Siltanen has a Master’s Degree in Visual Arts and his work combines urban culture, graphic design, and a narrative world of characters. Love Helsinki is part of Helsinki’s multilayered contemporary art scene, and this renewed version marks a new era for the work in its transformed environment.

Percent for Art Principle brings art to the everyday

The artworks have been realised in accordance with the Percent for Art Principle. Under this initiative, part of the construction and renovation budget of the City of Helsinki is spent on commissioning new public art. HAM is the art expert in these projects, and the finished artworks are added to the City of Helsinki’s art collection, which is managed and curated by HAM. Helsinki’s Urban Environment Division and the Helsinki City Executive Office commission the works. In 2025, 12 new artworks commissioned through the Percentage for Art Principle were installed in Helsinki.