Tom of Finland collections gathered in Turku

Tom of Finland will not be leaving Turku entirely, even though the Capital of Culture year’s successful Tom of Finland exhibition is closing in Logomo on 18 December 2011. The Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art and the Åbo Akademi Library want to gather permanent collections of works by Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen) and material related to the artist in Turku.

The Tom of Finland Foundation, operating in the United States, supports the construction of the collections. As a token of its support, the foundation donated one of the artist’s works to the Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art (WAM), acting as the Turku City Art Museum. The donated piece is a 39 x 30 cm untitled face portrait from 1971, pastel on paper. The work was donated to the museum on its own premises on Thursday, 15 December.

The work was handed over by the Tom of Finland Foundation’s president and co-founder Durk Dehner, who was also a close friend to Touko Laaksonen who passed away in 1991. The recipient was represented by Päivi Kiiski, Director of Fine Arts at the Museum Centre of Turku.

 - WAM belongs to the Museum Centre of Turku, and in addition to sculpture and art from the Turku region, the focal areas of its collection include changing identities, for example. Tom of Finland meets two of these criteria. On the identity front, we are especially interested in queer research, which makes Tom particularly fitting for our collection, Päivi Kiiski says with gratitude.

Tom of Finland, a native of Turku’s neighbouring town of Kaarina, conquered the world with his trademark style.

- From an art history point of view, Tom of Finland has inspired popular culture and contemporary art in many ways. A modern art museum is the best place for his artistic legacy, Kiiski says.

The donation is hoped to provide an opportunity for further donations. In addition to works and sketches, information concerning Touko Laaksosen is also requested for archival in the form of biography documents. These are assembled by the Åbo Akademi Library’s script and images unit, which is hoping to receive photos and letters for its archive collections.

- We believe private individuals still have undiscovered documents related to Tom of Finland, such as diary entries or other similar material improving our overall image of the artist, says script and image collection director Catherine af Hällström, encouraging people with such material to contact them.

You can see the exhibition of Tom of  Finland in our video: Logomo – the largest art space in Turku – European Capital of Culture 2011

The center of culture and arts LOGOMO is a symbol of the cultural capital Turku in 2011.We recommend to start the acquaintance with cultural capital 2011 with LOGOMO. Here everything is impressive and overwhelming starting with especially designed cafe, where you feel like you are in the Wonder Land, and also space itself, built with the help of latest technical equipment and great imagination.

One of the biggest halls here is dedicated to the main exhibition titled “Fire”. The oldest city of Finland – Turku has experienced many fires, but the most devastating occurred in 1827. The consequences of this tragedy are regarded through the emotional experience of individual – citizen of that time, and also, as a disaster, which changed the image of the city. the Model of ancient Turku is built in one of the exhibition halls, where the tragedy of 1827 is displayed by multimedia technology.

The display which is shown during 5 minutes will shock you undoubtedly. You will get extraordinary experience while being surrounded by fire in a burning house, walking up the ancient street of burned, but still glowing city, rescuing people, jumping out of the windows of burning house and extinguishing a fire by yourself. These interactive games are unusually interesting and didactic, not only for children but for adults as well, because these are real art objects.

Most part of LOGOMO is dedicated to exhibitional art space. The most extensive exhibitions of contemporary photography ever arranged in Finland takes place here. There are also an areas, which are banned for juveniles, where retrospective collection of Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen)’s works are displayed. These works were provided by the organization, named HOMOTOPIA from UK, Liverpool. It should be noted that the announced decision of opening this exhibition caused controversial opinions, and even a scandal in the press, because Tom of Finland’s art is positioned on the verge of porn. But the scandal has mostly faded since the opening, and this hidden exhibition attracts adults’ attention.

Video art, represented in LOGOMO gives a really shocking impression. Sure, you will not regret the spent time, if you decide to visit the cultural capital of Europe 2011 – Turku City. Our official partner – ARTTREVEL Club will be pleased to assist you. Read and watch videos about other interesting places and hotels in the cultural capital soon!