To spotlight the Paralympic Games, a celebration of excellence, courage and life, EUNIC Japan is organizing a Paralympics Photo Exhibition entitled “Spirit in Motion-for Diversity & Inclusion”. “Spirit in Motion” is the official motto of the Paralympic Games, introduced in 2004.

In order to contribute to the recognition of the achievements and raising awareness of the athletes who compete in the Paralympic Games, as well as highlighting the importance of disability inclusion, EUNIC Japan is holding “Spirit in Motion” in summer 2021 in partnership with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government at their Tosei Gallery at its main building in Shinjuku.

Finnish photographer Miikka Kiminki has captured the moments and spirit of recurring paralympic champion, Leo-Pekka Tähti, a true embodyment of “Spirit in Motion”.

Spirit in Motion-for Diversity & Inclusion

18th of August to 6th of September 2021 – Weekdays from 9:00 to 18:00
Tokyo Metropolitan Government at their Tosei Gallery – Free entry

Miikka Kiminki

Miikka is a 37 year old professional freelance photographer and has studied photography in the Arts Academy at Turku University of Applied Sciences. He currently lives in Pori, Finland. He is passionate to tell people’s stories through portrait photography, often trying to capture emotions and movements in his photos, which the naked eye cannot easily see.

Leo-Pekka Tähti

Leo-Pekka Tähti is clearly a top athlete who always strives to win the competitions. He trains very hard and always sets his goals as high as possible. Leo-Pekka has often proven to be one of the best in the world and the fastest on the track. His commitment and passion for the sport, and life itself is obvious for anyone to see. All the photos are taken in Pori, the city where Leo-Pekka was born, and started training sports.

All photos taken by Miikka Kiminki.

Welcome to the on-line seminar Sustainable Design from Finland on Friday August 20th between 3pm and 6pm. Speakers include textile designer of the year 2021 Erja Hirvi, lecturer at Aalto university Markus Joutsela, architect Pekka Helin and many other top professionals of their field. Full speaker line up and registration throught the event website: https://sustainabledesignfromfinland.com/

The seminar is free and will be held in English.

– Patterns and Forms Inspired by Nature

The legacy of modernism is still strongly present in the day-to-day lives of Finns. The Finnish Design for Everyday Life – Patterns and Forms Inspired by Nature exhibition showcases this history, design and art of modernism from the 1930s to the 1970s. The exhibition sheds a light on the evolution of Finnish design into a well-known phenomena while also offering glimpses into the Helsinki of artists and designers, where Tove Jansson, amongst others, left her mark with her commissioned works and art pieces. The success stories of the Finnish art industry at the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and in the Milan Triennials in the 1950s also have their moments in the spotlight. The exhibition also presents the Finnish textile industry to the Japanese audience, showcasing the successful histories of Marimekko and the Finlayson and Tampella factories.

Nature is still very much present in the Finnish way of life and the day-to-day life. The exhibition studies how various flora and fauna, the different seasons and natural phenomena have inspired artists, photographers, architects and designers. Their experiences of nature manifest in their art, the unique items of the art industry as well as in industrial serial production. The diversity and organicity of nature are reflected on the pieces and works of the exhibition; the posters, photographs, glass and ceramics art, fashion photos and advertisements, textiles, furniture, dishes, paintings and drawings.

The exhibition contains about 300 art works and items from nearly 40 different Finnish artists and designers. In addition to Alvar Aalto, Ilmari Tapiovaara, Tapio Wirkkala, Timo Sarpaneva, Kaj Franck, Michael Schilkin and Birger Kaipiainen, the exhibition showcases a group of influential women designers, such as Aino Aalto, Dora Jung, Eva Taimi, Eva Anttila, Saara Hopea, Gunnel Nyman, Helena Tynell, Nanny Still, Uhra-Beata Simberg-Ehrström, Rut Bryk, Toini Muona, Kyllikki Salmenhaara and Marjatta Metsovaara, who all deserve international attention also during these modern times.

In addition to the collections of the HAM Helsinki Art Museum, items and works in the exhibition have been borrowed from the following collections: The Alvar Aalto Museum/Alvar Aalto Foundation, Design Museum, Helsinki City Museum, Kakkonen Collection, Moomin Characters Ltd, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Vapriikki and private collections.

The exhibition has been curated by HAM curator Heli Harni, with Harri Kalha, PhD, serving as an expert.

Finnish Design for Everyday Life – Patterns and Forms Inspired by Nature
The Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo
September 11th − November 28th 2021
For more information, please visit the museum’s website.

This exhibition has previously been shown in
Tottori Prefectural Museum, Tottori October 10th – November 15th 2020
Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Fukuoka June 26th – August 29th 2021
and it will continue to
Bunkamura, Tokyo December 7th 2021 – January 30th 2022

Photo: Tsutomu Miura / Tottori Prefectural Museum

In May 2021 the Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes announced a new ‘Together Alone 2.0’ open call for art projects in order to help the art scene battle challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic. The open call was aimed at artists and creative workers whose activities and livelihood have been adversely affected by the pandemic. Out of over 140 applications eight projects have been selected that investigate new ways of working and thinking in this difficult time.

“We received high quality applications from many different fields of art. The selected commissions range from AI-sound art to ecological fashion, to podcasts and contemporary circus. The emphasis is on community-engaged art and on international collaboration”, says Pauliina Ståhlberg, the Director of the Finnish Cultural Institute in Madrid.

We are grateful for all the applications that we received. It is impressive to see how artists from around the world are reflecting on the global crisis and the state of emergency through art, and how they are doing this together across borders.

The following projects will be commissioned for Together Alone 2.0:
• Minna Pöllänen and Bang Geul Han: Talk Me Tender
• Anni Puolakka and Ellie Hunter: Inside Eye, Mother Compost
• Jani Kaila and Maarten Wentholt: Veerkracht
• Meriam Trabelsi and Caroline Suinner, Pehmee Kollektiivi: Safer Spaces For Unhad Conversations
• Johanna Rotko: The Nature of Microbes
• David Kozma: The Middle Eastern Bloc podcast Presents Spring ’ 21
• Jaana Pirskanen and Jukka Vallisto: Together Alone In Time
• Milena Oksanen, Diego Machado and José Filgueira: Beatland (A Circus Dream)

By following the Institutes’ social media channels and the #TogetherAloneFi hashtag, you will from August onwards be able to explore all the selected Together Alone 2.0 projects.

More information:
Pauliina Ståhlberg
Director, The Finnish Cultural Institute in Madrid
pauliina.stahlberg(at)madrid.fi
+34 91 444 44 14

Jaakko Nousiainen
Director, The Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland
+44 (0)7711004801
jaakko.nousiainen(at)fininst.uk

Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) was one of Finland’s most famous architects. His dedication to meticulous design that adopted the perspectives of users, and to architecture rooted in regional cultures and societies, grew out of the deeply held beliefs of another Aalto, his wife Aino (1894-1949). This exhibition traces the 25-year story of their synergistic relationship and sharing of ideals, from when Aino met the still-unknown Alvar until her death long before his, and features documents and distinctive materials from the family archive.

Aino and Alvar Aalto: Shared Visions

Saturday, July 10 – Sunday, August 29, 2021
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art

Closed: Mondays (except August 9 (public holiday), closed the next day, August 10).
Hours: 10:00AM – 6:00PM, Fridays and Saturdays until 8:00PM
(last entry: 30 minutes before closing time)
For more information, visit the museum’s website

Photo: Alvar Aalto: Armchair 41 “Paimio”, 1932. Alvar Aalto Foundation. Photo: Maija Holma

Eliel Saarinen and His Beautiful Architecture in Finland

Finland is renowned for its beautiful forests and lakes. It is also home to Finnish modernism, an architectural style that is also popular in Japan. One major figure who helped develop the style was Eliel Saarinen (1873–1950). Saarinen founded an architectural firm with university friends Herman Gesellius and Armas Lindgren. One of his first jobs at the firm, designing the Finnish pavilion at the 1900 Paris World Fair, won him considerable praise. Initially, Saarinen worked in a style that was dubbed National Romantic, which while influenced by art nouveau was more focused on expressing the country’s traditional cultures. The nationalist ethos behind this style struck a chord with the people of Finland at a time when they were seeking independence from Russia.

Saarinen and his partners eventually built Hvitträsk, a complex designed to be a cross-genre work of art presenting an ideal lifestyle: living quietly in nature inside a home that also served as a venue for social functions with other artists. Saarinen gradually expanded his work into residences, commercial buildings, public buildings, train stations, and urban design. Through this varied portfolio, Saarinen played an important role in modernizing architecture throughout the first half of the 20th century. What began as a multicultural style with a strong focus on traditional Finnish culture gradually morphed into something more distinctive and modernist, presenting a new kind of Finnish identity.

This exhibition focuses on Saarinen’s work in Finland from the time before his emigration to the United States in 1923. Architectural drawings, photographs, and designs of furniture and lifestyle items shed light on Saarinen’s style, at once revolutionary and grounded in nature and the local environment. He was also skilled at using light and shadow to imbue his work with richness. At a time when many people find themselves pausing to rethink their ways of life, visitors may find Saarinen’s works speaking to them at a visceral level.

Event

Finnish pavilion at the World EXPO 1900 – multilayered art, social networks, and hidden messages
The Finnish pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris 1900 was a huge effort and succeeded partly because of social networks. It was a complete work of art that manifested the true Finnishness in architecture, handicraft and design, visual arts, and music. The artists worked tirelessly, and the result was – magnificent! How did they succeed? What was the idea behind the architecture and the art presented in the pavilion? How did the networks of artists contribute to the creation of the overall work of art?

Speaker Dr. Anna-Maria Wiljanen (Art historian and director of the Finnish Institute in Tokyo)
The lecture will be filmed and uploaded on YouTube, available free of charge from 10 a.m. on July 4th until 6 p.m. on July 6th 2021. Detailed information closer to the date.

General Information

Dates July 3 – September 20, 2021

Panasonic Shiodome Museum of Art
4th Floor, Panasonic Tokyo Shiodome Bldg, 1-5-1 Higashi-Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-8301

Hours 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. (Admittance until 5:30 p.m.)
* Open until 8 p.m. (admittance until 7:30 p.m.) on August 7 and September 3.
Closed Wednesdays and during August 10 – 13
Admission Adults: ¥800
Visitors aged 65 or over carrying proof of age: ¥700
Students (College): ¥600
Students (High / Middle school): ¥400
Admission is free for children in primary school and younger.
Admission is free for disability passbook holders and up to one accompanying adult.

More details at the Panasonic Shiodome Museum of Art website

Photo: Finnish Heritage Agency, Historian kuvakokoelma

Thank you for all the participants! The webinar was held on Thursday 17. June 2021.

Demola WEBINAR organised by FIJ: International foresight projects as a tool to bring students and organizations together to build better future.
Do you want to be part of a team working for a better future globally? Welcome to webinar focusing on Demola’s platform – connecting students and enterprises through innovative collaborations.
One for Humanity program is a high-level initiative established by Demola Global in collaboration with Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. The program is run throughout the year 2021 and explores six selected globally relevant societal themes. We invite universities and z-generation students all over the globe to create impact for better future. Interested? In this webinar you will hear all about the awarded platform and how to join!

Date: Thursday 17th June 2021 17:00-18:30
Programme:
17:00     Opening words – Dr Anna-Maria Wiljanen, Director of the FInnish Institute in Japan
17:10     Demola in a nutshell – Ville Kairamo, CEO, Demola Global
Demola experiences and Hokkaido University – Itsuro Sugimura, Head of Demola program at the Hokkaido University
One for Humanity program and students’ participation in Demola projects – Jere Wessman, Creative Director, Demola Global
18:00     Q & A
18:30     Closing remarks