HELSINKI.- This exhibition at the Sinebrychoff Art Museum takes us into the night and its many different faces. Besides the artworks, poetry is also a powerful presence, guiding us into these mysterious hours. Inspired by the art and the exhibition’s theme, poet Henriikka Tavi has written poems that form an integral part of the whole.

Rather than explaining away this special time of day, visitors are encouraged to feel and interpret the night. Instead of a set of distinct works, the exhibition is a total work of art, with its architecture – devised by Designer Lauri Johansson – also playing a major role.

“We audaciously set about testing a completely new concept, in which collaboration with a poet opens up new interpretations. The exhibition architecture intensifies the nocturnal atmosphere with stage-set-like elements,” says Museum Director Kirsi Eskelinen.

The exhibition explores night and the world of dreams, transporting us from dusk to dawn. First, the twilight of evening creeps in and the moon rises in the sky. The moon has inspired Ivan Aivazovsky (1817–1900), Albert Edelfelt (1854–1905), and others. Bedtime stories and counting sheep are rituals that coax us to dive down to the wellsprings of sleep. Karel Dujardin (1626–1678) and Johann Heinrich Roos (1631–1685) depict sheep in their prints. In the voyage of dreams, the destination is surprising and things are often peculiar and a little skewed. There are evident links with the incongruous dream world, for instance, in the works of Saara Salmi (b. 1981) and Mikko Ängeslevä (b. 1982). And the nightmares retreat, at the latest, when the morning sun rises and a new day dawns.

The works here are from the Finnish National Gallery’s own collection, with old European art plus paintings, prints and sculptures from the 19th century to the present day. Also on display are copies of archive cards from the Finnish Literature Society’s records documenting Finnish folklore about dreams and premonitions. The youngest family members have also been remembered in the design of the exhibition, for example, by hanging the works low and by giving youngsters things to do. The curator of the exhibition is Kersti Tainio.

Poetry gets us in tune with the night

The exhibition design is intended to create moods and to leave space for the viewer’s own associations. This also led to an innovative collaboration with the poet Henriikka Tavi.

“Writing the poems was part of the construction of the exhibition as a whole. The workgroup met on several occasions and I set out my idea at a very early stage. It made sense to write in dialogue with the artworks selected for the exhibition,” Tavi says.

Instead of the usual wall texts, you can read poetry that attunes you to exploring the exhibition’s theme and the works on display. The poems add new levels to interpretation of the works and act as a portal to the present day. The art conducts a dialogue with the poetry.

“When I write a poem, I see myself as making art, and I’m sure many exponents of other arts think of themselves as, for example, painting or performing poetry,” Tavi says.

You can also sit down to enjoy poetry in the bay-window reading corner with its collection of works by Finnish poets. The furniture in the bay window has been covered by sheets, so you can relax there in the atmosphere of a villa that has been wrapped for the winter. Poetry also exerts its powerful presence in the exhibition events.

Dreams and Portents

For most of us nighttime is for sleep, and dreams are an essential part of this special time of day. As well as being a very private, unfathomable borderland of visions, dreams are both shared and universal. They take us into their own world, where anything can happen.

The contents of our dreams change as the world changes around us. People are fascinated by dreams, and interpreting them is a common practice. The exhibition includes clean copies of the Finnish Literature Society’s archive cards from the 19th and 20th centuries documenting Finnish folklore about dreams and premonitions. These materials are from the archive’s tradition and contemporary-culture collection. Premonitory dreams often foresee coming into money, death, good and evil, and more. Visitors can also share their own remembered dreams by writing or drawing on cards and leaving them for others to see for the remainder of the exhibition period.

The exhibition invites us to savour the atmosphere of this special time of day that is familiar to all, while giving us a chance to experience poetry in a new context.