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MUUSA: Helsinki Museums Summer Festival,  participation @ Next Helsinki competition [Winner]

The Hidden Bigness of Helsinki Local Museums

The ‘Next Helsinki’ competition was organised as a counterweight to the plans for a new Guggenheim museum in Helsinki. With our proposal we introduce the idea of a summer festival of Helsinki’s local museums, as a counterweight to the Guggenheim international franchise, planned to be placed at Helsinki’s south harbor.

The plans for a new Guggenheim museum, when realised, will provide the city of Helsinki with a new landmark of international recognition. This will definitely enhance the brand name of the city; however it will also charge it with the overwhelming bigness of an international franchise. Placed at the port and very close to the Market Square, which is one of the main centres of the city and one of the main hubs of tourist flow, the new museum will eventually ‘name’ the city: Helsinki will be one of the ‘Guggenheim Cities’.

On the other hand it is a fact that Helsinki has already over 80 local museums. Many of them have a nation-wide importance and some can be even considered internationally acclaimed, like for example the Kiasma Museum of contemporary art, the Aalto House or the Design museum. The museums of Helsinki cover a wide range of subjects and provide with a vast knowledge about most aspects of the life of the city, its past, its present production as well as its possibilities for the future. Helsinki museums are part of the local identity and form the local character of the city.

The big number of museums, one of the biggest among the Baltic cities, possibly renders Helsinki a ‘museum city’, however without that being very obvious to the visitor. The numerous museums are scattered around the city. That may provide to the visitor with an opportunity for wandering and getting to know the city, however it doesn’t serve the needs of short visits, and it doesn’t help the formation of the ‘first impression’ which is so important for   The big number of museums provides a ‘bigness’ that is ‘hidden’ in the city. This ‘hidden bigness’ also, although potentially the most important feature of Helsinki is not capitalized in the consciousness of its people. Helsinki’s residents live their everyday lives among the museums, without having the opportunity to interact with them in a regular basis, without understanding them as part of their daily life.

In order to create a public space of density for the local museums and promote their presence in the city, we proposed the idea of MUUSA, or the Helsinki Museum Summer Festival. This will be a festival lasting during the summer months, from May to September each year and will take place at a specific open space of the city, different each year. The Festival aims at bringing together various museums of Helsinki each year and bringing forward their existence and activities under the umbrella of a common theme: The Child,  Domestic Life in the Middle Ages, Transportation in Sea and Land, Smuggling in the Baltic Sea, Independence and Occupation etc.

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PROJECT: MUUSA: Helsinki Museums Summer Festival. Shortlisted entry at the ‘Next Helsinki’ competition.

An exciting international jury [Michael Sorkin, Walter Hood, Juha Huuskonen, Heta Kuchka, Juhani Pallasmaa, Miguel Robles-Durán, Neil Spiller, Joanna Warsza, Mabel Wilson, Sharon Zukin] selected MUUSA as one of the 8 winning proposals from more than 200 entries.

CLIENT: The Next Helsinki, organized by Checkpoint Helsinki, Terreform and G.U.L.F. (Global Ultra Luxury Faction)

PLACE/TIME: Helsinki, Finland, 2015

PROJECT TEAM: Christos Papastergiou, Christiana Ioannou

Competition website here

Published proposal here

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The ‘Hidden Bigness’ of Helsinki local museums

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Museums of Helsinki and the parts of their buildings dedicated to the MUUSA festival

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The Boxes of the MUUSA festival space

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MUUSA thematics and place at Helsinki South Harbour

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Exhibits from participatory museums at the  MUUSA exhibition, ‘The Child’ and their stories:

The Finnish Museum of Photography, Design Museum, Kindergarten Museum, Military Museum, KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Cultures, Museum of Finnish Architecture, Museum of Natural History, Museum of Technology, National Museum of Finland, Päivälehti Museum, Sport Museum of Finland, Suomenlinna Toy Museum, Theatre Museum, Helsinki City Museum, Ateneum

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