Graffiti

Mounted in the museum’s two large vaulted galleries, the exhibition is divided into two parts. The first examines graffiti as a subculture, lifestyle and form of art. The roots of graffiti culture are presented through Martha Cooper’s iconic photos of subway trains and graffiti artists in NYC. A mural created for this exhibition by legendary graffiti artist Blade will bring history to life in the present, and Swedish graffiti artist Nug will paint his latest work directly onto the gallery wall.

The colourful history of graffiti in Helsinki from the 1980s to the present is illustrated in a timeline highlighting the major shift in local citizens’ attitude toward the public space in the past ten years.

The second part of the exhibition consists of works of art that feature the public space and its utilisation as a place for art. The American group Guerrilla Girls presents an installation of posters and videos that illustrates their campaigns over the past few decades combating inequality in the art world and society at large. Urban Space Occupation Kit by Otto Karvonen will give audiences a chance to appropriate a space for themselves. The exhibition also includes works from the HAM collection by artists whose first visual inspiration was graffiti.

The exhibition is curated by Heli Harni, Satu Oksanen and Sanna Tuulikangas from HAM. The exhibition architecture is designed by architect Tuomas Siitonen.