Mood – Helsinki 1939–45

The exhibition will showcase the pessimism and optimism of those years as they were reflected in art, but also the visual world made necessary by the exigencies of war.

The exhibition will open in both museums at the same time. The exhibition in Tennis Palace will present visual art, photographs and objects arranged thematically according to factors that affected the mood of the country during the war. It will also showcase successful exhibitions from those years, such as gigantic exhibitions of spoils of war in the Helsinki Exhibition Hall, the exhibition of German propaganda art at the Ateneum and the exhibition of Finnish female artists that went on tour to Germany and its annexed areas. The show in Helsinki City Museum’s Hakasalmi Villa will focus on the evacuation of people and artworks. The narrative voice of the show will be provided by secret reports on the mood of the people drawn up for the military by Helsinki civilians.