The two major Turku Capital of Culture year exhibitions will continue at Logomo

The two highly popular Capital of Culture year exhibitions at the exhibition centre Logomo will continue until next year. The Fire! Fire! exhibition depicting the great fire of Turku and the power of fire will continue until the end of July, and the Only a Game? exhibition showcasing football will continue until the middle of April 2012. The exhibitions will be reopened to the public on Tuesday 17 January 2012.

The reason behind continuing the exhibitions is the feedback received from the visitors and the great demand. A lot of children and families with children have visited the exhibitions. There were over 10,000 visitors to Logomo during the last weekend the exhibitions had a free entrance.

- All the Logomo exhibitions have been well received, and there have been a lot of visitors, but the two exhibitions which will now continue have been the absolute crowd-pullers at Logomo. We wanted to provide people with yet another opportunity to visit the exhibitions and also continue the good exhibition offering of the Capital of Culture year, says Cay Sevón, CEO of the Turku 2011 Foundation.

The Fire! Fire! exhibition will be open throughout the continuation period. When the exhibition Only a Game? ends at Logomo in April, the plan is to move part of the exhibition to the lower level lobby of the Veritas stadium as a permanent exhibition. Part of the exhibition will travel to the European Football Championships in Wroclaw, Poland, for the summer of 2012.

The continuation of the exhibitions at Logomo has been strongly promoted by Aleksi Randell, Mayor of Turku.

- I am pleased that the exhibitions which attracted so many visitors can still continue next year, and that the exhibition Only a Game? can be permanently located in the Veritas Stadium, where thousands and thousands of football lovers can see it.

- Related to the Fire! Fire! exhibition, the city will clarify if a permanent exhibition complex about the history of Turku and Finland could be implemented in Turku, Randell tells.

A photograph exhibition to replace football in April

In the Only a Game? exhibition premises at Logomo, a large photograph exhibition on the history of Turku will be opened by the end of  April 2012. It is produced by the Museum Centre of Turku.

- The starting point of the exhibition is Turku in photographs, with the main emphasis on the large-size reproductions of older photograph material. Many have longed for a museum of Turku's own city history. Now together with the strong Turku history related content of the Fire! Fire! exhibition the combination of the two exhibitions works as a versatile display of the history of Turku, says Olli Immonen Director of Turku Museums.

The continuation of the exhibitions was decided on by the Turku 2011 Foundation Board on 21 December. The continuation of the exhibitions is financed by the Turku 2011 Foundation, which also carries the financial responsibility. The practical responsibility of the exhibition activity is all with the Museum Centre of Turku. The Turku 2011 Foundation Board decided also that Turku 2011 Foundation will negotiate with the Museum Centre of Turku about the continuation of the exhibitions Fire! Fire! and Only a Game?. Part of the exhibition staff worked at Logomo during the Capital of Culture year.

The exhibition Fire! Fire! will still have an entrance fee, and the Only a Game? exhibition and the consequent new photograph exhibition will have free admission.

- During the next half a year everyone has an opportunity to get to know the wonderful entity crowned by the miniature theatre telling about the fire of Turku. Connected to the exhibition, and suitable e.g. as a workplace health promotion visit there is the Burn Out!  tour, says Minna Sartes Director of Cultural Affairs in Turku.

Changing exhibitions continue to be seen at Logomo

The Logomo exhibition centre was closed on Sunday night 18 December. During the break the continuing exhibitions will be serviced, and new activity will also be built in Logomo in the premises of the exhibitions which already ended. In the visual art exhibition premises, an enterprise village will be opened in February 2012. It is a study module targeted for 5-6 graders, where students get to live in the role of an adult for a day.

- It is great that we can immediately start a series of changing exhibitions, which will be an important part of the operation of Logomo in the future, says Päivi Rytsä, CEO of Logomo Oy.

Altogether 248,000 people visited the exhibitions and events of the Logomo exhibition centre during the Capital of Culture year; the number of the Fire! Fire! exhibition visitors alone was over 100,000 people.

In addition to the Fire! Fire! and Only a Game? exhibitions, the photograph exhibition of the Finnish Museum of Photography, Alice in Wonderland, Tom of Finland exhibition, and two video installations of the museum of modern art Kiasma were displayed at Logomo.

The Kiasma video installations will be returned to the Kiasma collections. Alice in Wonderland will be reborn in the new exhibition facilities of the City of Cádiz in Spain in the autumn next year. The works of the Tom of Finland exhibition will be returned to their owner, a Los Angeles based foundation. The art museum of the Museum Centre of Turku, responsible for the art collection of the City of Turku, has received a portrait by Touko Laaksonen/Tom of Finland as a donation, and the Åbo Akademi University archive will accept material of cultural history significance of Laaksonen's life. The heritage of the year 2011 will thus live on in many ways in the coming years.

The Fire! Fire! exhibition has been the main exhibition of the Capital of Culture year at Logomo. The exhibition is a joint project of the Finnish Science Centre Heureka and the Museum Centre of Turku. Only a Game? is an interactive exhibition for the whole family, produced by the Union of European Football Associations UEFA, and has been on display in Brussels, Liverpool, and Istanbul before Turku. The exhibition is produced by Belgian Album.

The exhibitions will be open from Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am–6 pm during 17 January–29 July 2012, Fire! Fire! during 17 Jan – 29 July, Only a Game? during 17 Jan – 15 April and Turku in photographs during 28 April – 29 July.

Further information:

Cay Sevón
Managing Director
Turku 2011 Foundation
tel. +358 (0)40 7649 541
cay.sevon(a)turku2011.fi

Aleksi Randell
Mayor
City of Turku
tel. +358 (0)400 500 822
aleksi.randell(a)turku.fi

Minna Sartes
Director of Cultural Affairs
City of Turku
tel. +358 (0)50 527 8163
minna.sartes(a)turku.fi

Olli Immonen
Director of Turku Museums
City of Turku
tel. +358 (0)40 350 2782
olli.immonen(a)turku.fi

Päivi Rytsä
CEO
Logomo Oy
p. +358 (0)50 5960 773
paivi.rytsa(a)logomo.fi