Moomin Exhibition

Courage, Freedom, Love! The Moomins 75

14.8.2020 - 28.2.2021

"a magical journey into the values and philosophy of the Moomins"

(picture post)

This exhibition had escaped my notice, until my mom brought it to my attention. So, once I learned about it of course I wanted to go! The exhibit is in the National Museum of Finland in Helsinki. 

Both in Finnish and Swedish the title for the exhibition is Courage, Love, Freedom, but in English the last two are switched. I wonder why they changed the word order for the English name? I don't think either one rolls off the tongue any easier than the other.

We went to the museum on the 27th of August. The entrance ticket cost 14€.

The exhibit was divided into five rooms and they were limiting  the amount of people that was allowed inside (the Moomin exhibition, not the whole museum). While we were waiting for our turn, we could hear on the radio of the guy who was guarding the entrance something like "two exited" and then he would let two people enter. I assume this was due to COVID-19, but then again, the way this exhibit was built, global virus or not, having the rooms filled with people would certainly have ruined the experience. (Like it did the Barbie exhibition)

All of the rooms were decorated with different themes, with a bunch of quotes printed on the walls and  cut out characters placed here and there and a few video projections. Aside from that, the were only a few things set on display in these "character boxes" that were inserted into the walls.

Visually, this exhibition is really fun and nice looking, but I thought it was also really shallow. Honestly, it looked like a really expensive Moomin themed children's playground you'd find inside a big shopping center. Alone, I don't think it is worth the price.

Sure, for the 14 € you paid for the entrance, you are free to see the other permanent exhibitions at the museum, but I've been to this museum so many times in my life, I didn't feel like checking it out once again. You would think they could knock a couple euros off the price if you only wanted to see the Moomin exhibition.

Before we left, I took a quick look inside the museum shop.  They had the standard stuff,  posters, postcards and notebooks with the "big wave" image they use for all advertising of this exhibition. The notebook would have been nice, especially because it had blank pages, but I already have too many notebooks, so I didn't get it or anything else Moomin. I only bought two rainbow colored pencils, 2€ each, the cheapest item I could find in the shop!

It was a beautiful day. Here's a picture of the Parliament House we walked past  on our way to the museum. Just because.