The Finnish National Gallery and Sitra pilot project in the metaverse - The art in the Finnish Metagallery is selected by visitors

The Finnish Metagallery pavilion, which is be located in the Decentraland virtual world, will be a unique Finnish exploration of the possibilities of virtual worlds. The aim of the project is to delight and inspire all art lovers to explore the metaverse. Visitors will be able to influence the art displayed in the pavilion and vote on additional works of art. They will also receive some digital swag, a national romantic Väiski cap, for their avatar.

"The Metagallery is both an inspiring exploration of the metaverse of the future and an art exhibition that brings history to life. This suits us, as our mission is to promote the visibility, impact and development of cultural heritage,” says Johanna Eiramo, Director of the Digital National Gallery programme.

"Through the Metagallery we are able to bring something completely new to art lovers, but at the same time, we are exploring what museum work could be in a web 3.0 world. The Finnish National Gallery has more than 44,000 works of art and related archival material, which we want to make more accessible. Research shows that virtual worlds bring a lot of positive benefits to human interaction," says Kimmo Levä, Director General of the Finnish National Gallery. "For the majority of people, visiting museums is a social event as they visit the exhibitions with family, friends, acquaintances and colleagues. The same is possible at the Decentraland exhibition."

Exploring new digital opportunities is important. Art can delight and inspire regardless of geographical location. "The project allows us to bring art to audiences we might not otherwise reach. It is important for us to understand the quantity and quality of visitor activation and interaction, as well as the degree of difficulty in the virtual world," Johanna Eiramo says. "A growing number of people are using primarily digital services, not as an extension of the physical world."

The Finnish Metagallery will bring diverse and valuable insights into the next generation internet, contributing to the shaping of the Finnish web 3.0 ecosystem. If Finland does not invest in the development of web 3.0, we risk falling behind in the development and exploitation of the next generation internet.

"It is in Finland's interest to better understand what web 3.0 and the metaverse are all about," says Kristo Lehtonen, Director of Sitra's Fair Data Economy theme. “Sitra has supported the project by providing expert advice. As a Household of the Future, we want to contribute to the emergence of this knowledge and ecosystem in Finland. One way to make it concrete is through experimentation. In this pilot, in addition to the metaverse, we will also gradually experiment with new forms of participation and decentralisation. The fair data economy is one of Sitra's three themes that we believe will most change society in the future. A decentralised internet, or web 3.0, can be a fairer internet, where individuals have more control and trust over the use of their own data. What web 3.0 becomes, depends on all of us. It depends on the rules of the game, the legislation, the business models and the technologies we develop in the future. In Finland too, legislation needs to be updated."

"This has been a truly inspiring pilot project that quickly found a response and a virtual home in the Decentraland Museum District. The 3D world also enables the recreation of historic buildings, and Gallen-Kallela's frescoes can now be experienced in a completely new way, at the interface between history and the future. The project has required a wide range of collaboration, constant innovation, testing and rapid learning from everyone. It is very rewarding to be able to open the doors of the metaverse to art lovers with such a project, which is also of international interest”, says Marja Konttinen from the Decentraland Foundation.

Opening event at Sitra (Itämerenkatu 11–13) and online on 6 October 2022 at 10.30. Register here for the event (in Finnish)

Decentraland
Decentraland is a virtual world based on blockchain technology. The group responsible for its Museum District donated a virtual plot of land to the Finnish National Gallery for a limited period of time, free of charge. Metagallery pavillion was created by design and innovation studio Adventure Club using open source code. The pavilion model will be freely available for anyone to use after the Decentraland pavilion closes its doors. The Finnish Metagallery is free for everyone, and you don't have to pay anything to experience it.

Collections of the Finnish National Gallery
Many of the works in the Finnish National Gallery's collection are already available as images on the National Gallery's website at kansallisgalleria.fi. More than 24,000 of these images are published under a CC0 licence, which allows anyone to download and use the images on the site as they choose. The Finnish Metagallery project does not sample works of art, i.e. make NFTs of them.

The Finnish pavilion at the World Fair 1900
The historic Finnish pavilion has also aroused interest and enthusiasm in the past. The Aalto Media Lab, under the direction of Professor Lily Diaz-Kommonen, has created an impressive 3D model of it, and it can be admired at the Design Museum in Helsinki. Momentum 1900, a musical that also tells the story of the Paris World Fair pavilion, will be performed at the TTT-Theatre in Tampere.

Additional information:

Finnish National Gallery
Johanna Eiramo
Director of the Digital National Gallery programme and the Finnish Metagallery project
+358 400 995 699

Sitra
Kristo Lehtonen
Director of Sitra's Fair Data Economy theme
+358 40 803 2638

Decentraland Foundation
Marja Konttinen
marja@decentraland.com