Care and Repair! The Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum in Helsinki Challenge the Ideal of Novelty in Their New Exhibition

INVITATION: A press conference will be held on Thursday, 25th of April at 9:00. Coffee and a light breakfast will be served starting at 8:45. Register for the event in advance at press@designmuseum.fi. 

The FIX: Care and Repair exhibition is spread across both the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum Helsinki and will be on display from 26 April 2024 to 5 January 2025. 

FIX: Care and Repair

Objects and buildings are constantly changing. They age, get dirty, and break. Maintaining and repairing things are active practices that reflect our prevailing values. What objects and things do we invest time and money in caring for? What is left outside the scope of care? 

The exhibition features selected examples from the fields of architecture and design, along with four newly commissioned contemporary art installations. In their works, contemporary artists contemplate our relationship with dirt, power, and the seemingly mundane choices we make. The exhibition encourages active participation from visitors, who will have the opportunity to contemplate questions related to repair, cleaning, and maintenance, as well as participate in events woven around the exhibition. 

The exhibition has been curated by a multidisciplinary team from the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum, curators Kaisa Karvinen and Jutta Tynkkynen, exhibition producer Sara Martinsen, educational curator Hanna Kapanen and Manager of Learning and Public Programmes Jemina Vainikka Lindholm. The exhibition is designed by designer Lauri Johansson. 

Beautiful Patina – Ugly Dirt? 

The FIX exhibition presents various maintenance methods but also challenges the viewer to contemplate what is worth maintaining or repairing in the first place. Museum visitors encounter objects that have aged, become dirty, and worn out during their life. Why is the aging of some objects seen as valuable patina, while for others, wear and tear are undesirable? 

FIX highlights examples of both careful and detrimental maintenance. For instance, there is Alexander Calder's brass necklace, where the patina formed on it holds a special meaning, accentuating the jewelry's pattern. The exhibition also showcases side by side two of Paavo Tynell's Domus floor lamps, one naturally patinated, and the other a victim of "improper care". Is an object ruined when its surface is streaked with traces left by cleaning agents? Or does inappropriate surface treatment emphasize the form of the object, guiding the hand that cares for it? 

Museums Maintain, Preserve, and Exclude 

The primary mission of a museum collection is to endure and preserve, and therefore the relationship between museums and objects is unique. Collection items do not hold utility value like everyday objects; instead, they are preserved and cared for due to their intrinsic value and the knowledge associated with them. By maintaining and repairing their collections, museums sustain cultural history. Museum collections consist of both acquired and donated items, some carefully chosen and others ending up in the collection by chance. However, there is always something left outside the choices when deciding what is essential and worth preserving. 

When a museum selects items for its collection, much is also left unselected. Artist Jessica Andrey Bogush addresses questions of exclusion and marginalization in her work, constructing an alternative museum collection from them. The care of the items in the collection is presented through the Diamond chair designed by Harry Bertoia for Knoll. Alongside the chair, images and videos depict its conservation process, demonstrating that no time or effort has been spared in its maintenance. 

Clean and Maintain with Joy – Hidden from View 

Cleaning is a fundamental aspect of the world of architecture and design. The tools used in cleaning are design products themselves. Cleaning significantly influences the usability, durability, and our perceptions of the beauty of objects and spaces. However, cleaning work is often made invisible and done inconspicuously. Often, it takes place out of sight, before the arrival of guests or the morning shift of office workers. 

The FIX exhibition provides a glimpse into how cleanliness and hygiene have been regarded in different eras. It also highlights how individuals engaged in cleaning have been portrayed in the past and present. For example, advertising posters from the 1930s to the 1950s uniformly emphasize not only the importance of a tidy home but also the gender and appearance of the person doing the cleaning. Alongside these posters, the exhibition features photographs by Iiu Susiraja, in which objects associated with cleaning and laundry intertwine with unfamiliar items: frozen pizzas, a hangman's noose, and balloons. 

Repairing Challenges the Ideal of Novelty 

One perspective of the exhibition revolves around the expertise required for repairs and how this knowledge is shared. In the absence of knowledge and skill, objects and buildings can easily be ruined during the repair process. The expertise related to repairs is passed down from person to person, professional to professional, and generation to generation. Repairing is not just about extending the lifespan of objects, it is also active participation in the ongoing maintenance of our shared world. 

The exhibition showcases projects of varying complexity, where the focus is on skill and expertise. This includes darning templates from the 1950s, used in schools to teach the citizen skill of darning. The exhibition seamlessly transitions to the examination of current knowledge dissemination online, featuring the YouTube channel Odd Tinkering as an example. On this channel, an anonymous Finnish repairer restores and maintains old tools, and brings outdated electronics such as gaming consoles, keyboards, and phones back to life. 

The renovation of buildings represents a completely different level of expertise and a challenging task in terms of scale. An example is the renovation (2017) of the Helsinki City Theatre, originally designed by Timo Penttilä, in 1967. To ensure that the new tiles matched the original ones manufactured at the Arabia factory in 1965, a separate small facade tile factory had to be built at Pentik's ceramics factory in Posio. Numerous glaze experiments were conducted at the factory to achieve a result that matched the original. 

The events of the exhibition invite maintenance and repair 

The diverse and open programme of the FIX exhibition includes repair demonstrations, discussions, workshops, and events. 

Curator Tour: FIX: Care and Repair

Friday, April 26, at 13:00–14:30
Curators Kaisa Karvinen, Sara Martinsen, and Jutta Tynkkynen will guide participants through the details and background stories of the extensive exhibition. 

Open Guided Tours starting from April 27

Tuesdays at Design Museum at 17:00 and at the Museum of Finnish Architecture at 18:00. Saturdays at the Museum of Finnish Architecture at 1:00 PM and at Design Museum at 14:00. The tours will take place at both the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design Museum, and participants can join without prior reservation when paying the museum admission fee. The tours involve exploring the exhibition through interactive discussions. Additionally, guided tours in Swedish, English, and Russian will be available. Online tours will also be offered on the Facebook accounts of the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design Museum. 

Repair Demonstrations on the FIX Stage: Log 

May 16–17, 2024, at 13:00–15:00
May 18–19, 2024, at 13:00–15:00 and 16:00–18:00
The FIX Stage will host a series of repair demonstrations, allowing visitors to explore the work of master repairers from different fields. The first demonstration in the series focuses on repairing a thatched roof, providing insight into the work of experts from the Restart company, who specialize in traditional buildings. Later in the series, there will be demonstrations on techniques such as Japanese kintsugi, as well as patching and darning.

Cleaning Closet 

In the Cleaning Closet space within the exhibition, visitors can explore various cleaning tools and create their own arrangements from the selected tools. Workshops and events will be organized in the Cleaning Closet during the exhibition. The first drop-in workshop, designed for children accompanied by their adults, will take place on Saturday, May 11, 2024, at 15:00–17:00. 

Open House Helsinki

May 16–19, 2024
The Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design Museum participate in the Open House Helsinki festival by opening various architectural sites with the theme FIX: Care and Repair. The openings will be led by architect Matti Jänkälä, and Head of Research Petteri Kummala. Architectural walks with the theme FIX: Care and Repair will continue after the festival weekend as part of the programme at the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design Museum. 

FIX: Care and Repair exhibition partners are: Fiskars and Sinituote.

Press images

To download high resolution press images, please visit:

https://www.sttinfo.fi/uutishuone/69820559/ad-museo-oy/m