Exhibition: Down the Stairs to a Shady Grove

Summer Exhibition at the Museum of Finnish Architecture and in the museum's courtyard 27.5.–23.8.2015

"The garden belongs to our home just like any one of its rooms.  “Let the step from the kitchen garden to the rooms provide a much smaller contrast than the one from the road or street to the garden." Alvar Aalto

The summer exhibition at the Museum of Finnish Architecture examines the relation between garden art and architecture over a period of three centuries. Over the years appreciation for gardens and their significance has varied with the social and historic situation. When building something new, or supplementing the old, landscape architects and architects have pondered the built-up environment as a whole. The exhibition offers a thematically divided review of how Finnish gardens have been designed on different scales, and what kinds of conditions have affected their design.

The timeline of the exhibition extends from the 18th to the 21st century, from individual garden and landscape sites to planning the greenspace of entire urban districts. Much will fit in between - thoughts about nature, healthy living environments, and beauty, as expressed through means of gardens and landscapes. The exhibition opens up the built landscape as a whole and encourages visitors to ponder dialogues of architecture, gardens, and landscapes, which can be harmonious or inconspicuous, or conspicuous, and possibly discordant.

The exhibition showcases seventeen sites, in which a building or group of buildings, and their surrounding gardens form a work of art, reflecting the spirit of their times.
The sites are divided into five unifying themes of garden art and architecture:

1. HOME AND YARD - Everyday life and celebration
2. ENVIRONMENT - Assimilation and standing out
3. TIME - Change and permanence
4. SCALE - One and many
5. MOVEMENT

In addition, ten Finnish landscape and garden designers will be showcased in the smaller exhibition hall.

Curating the exhibition are Elina Standertskjöld (Phil. Lic.), Head of the MFA archives, and researcher Julia Donner (MA). The exhibition architecture is by architect Hannele Grönlund.

Students of the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences have produced the Monrepos multimedia installation at the exhibition.

Museum of Finnish Architecture Urban Garden

The exhibition will also extend to the museum's courtyard, with an attractive and relaxing urban garden by architect Hannele Grönlund. Students of the Aalto University Wood Studio have designed and are setting up an experimental wood pavilion in the yard of the museum. The design of the Fibre Pavilion was the work of Joni Helminen. Students have been guided by Professor Pekka Heikkinen, architect Philip Tidwell and Professor Hannu Hirsi.

During the summer the urban garden will come alive with a programme combining public lectures, lunches, yoga, music, and other branches of art. The programme of the "Down the Stairs to a Shady Grove" exhibition also includes guided walks.

PUBLICATION

A catalogue in Finnish and English will be published in connection with the exhibition.

Further information and press photos:
Ilona Hildén, Communications director
+358 (0)45 7731 0468
Ilona.hilden@mfa.fi

Museum of Finnish Architecture
Kasarmikatu 24
00130 Helsinki
Open
Tue.–Sun. 11–18
Wed. 11–20
Admission
Adults € 8.00, students, pensioners, unemployed € 4.00
Minors under 18 and war veterans, free of charge
Joint ticket for the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum € 12.00.