The Helsinki City Art Museum has one of the largest and most important collections of Finnish Contemporary Art. Works from these collections are now put on display for the public for the second time this year with Be good. Opening on September 10, Be good will focus on installations. Earlier this year, A party in every room presented video works from the Art Museum’s collections.

The themes of Be good deal with fairy tales, narratives and stories. They present strange creatures, childhood dreams and nightmares. Visitors will have an opportunity to settle their scores with popular toys and figures from fairy tales; there are frustrated bugbears begging for attention and frantic teddy bears. Bambi is forced to face reality and the heroines of girls’ books will be shown in a different and unexpected light.

Fairy tales and stories fascinate us all, but when they are shared by adults, new, painful and sad perspectives emerge of which children are unconscious.

The exhibition comprises 12 works from the early 20th century to the current year. The majority are installations, some of which are quite large. There also are drawings, prints, paintings, photographs, sculpture and videos.

The artists are Björn Aho, Aleksanteri Ahola-Valo, Kalle Hamm, Valter Kokot, Arto Korhonen, Henrietta Lehtonen, Petri Makkonen, Juha Mäki-Jussila, Tuula Närhinen, Pekka Purhonen and Pekka Sassi; Päivi Häkkinen, Marko Karpow and Joonas Salusjärvi appear as a group.

Interviews of all the artists will be published on the Art Museum’s Web site at www.taidemuseo.hel.fi/

The exhibition’s curator is Jari Björklöv and its architect is Tuija Järvenpää.

Further information: Curator Jari Björklöv tel. +358-(0)9-310 87046, +358-(0)50-377 0956 / Educational Curator Arja Miller tel. +358-(0)9-310 87007, +358-(0)50-336 1980 / press material: Press Secretary Karri Buchert tel. +358-(0)9-310 87004, +358-(0)50-304 6707.

Guided tours are given to the public free of charge in Finnish on Wednesdays at 18 and Saturdays and Sundays at 14 o’clock, and in Swedish on the first and third Sunday of each month at 13 o’clock. To book tours at other times and in other languages, please call +358-9-310 87003; there is a separate charge for these tours.

Point of view: Curator Jari Björklöv will talk about the exhibition on Thursday, September 19.