Ars Nokia 2018

Yes, your old mobile maker is named after this town in Finland. I traveled over to see an art exhibition Ars Nokia 2018 out of sheer curiosity - and because the name has a pompous tone to it.
picture below: the entrance to the exhibition hall, factory 108

Picture below: the first scene after arriving to Nokia travel station. Looks like time has taken its toll

Nokia is a town in the region of Pirkanmaa with about 33 000 inhabitants. According to wikipedia the first literary reference to Nokia is from 1505 as the manor of Nokia. The town has been known nation wide as a place of industry since 1865. That was when the first wood pulp plant was built by Fredrik Idestam. 1898 founded The Finnish Rubber Works LTD set up a factory in Nokia 1904 and in 1967 these two plus Cable Company LTD in unison formed the Nokia corporation. They still produce rubber (car tires) as well as paper. Most Finns know Nokia from rubber boots or wellingtons besides the world wide hit of mobile phones. In the 90’s Nokia started manufacturing mobile phones and the rest is pretty much history. From 2008 Nokia no longer had any telecom activity in its town of origin. The headquarters had been moved to Espoo near Helsinki and the factories moved over to Salo, southbound as well.

Image below: the entry scene to Nokianvirta Factory Island, est 1868

Another view from the industrial estate: rivers have been essential to Finnish industry, especially paper

Factory 108

The event was held in the old Nokia company’s industrial estate, in ‘factory 108’ which used to be an engineering factory. These days the premises are owned by a private person and are rented to a cultural co-operative. The exhibition was held by the local artist society consisting of paintings, cheramics, and a few installations. The premises also have a cafe as well as working space for artists, writers, a yoga studio and so forth. The factory estate itself still has industrial activity as well.

Picture below: view from within Factory 108

A nice feature also was the play area for kids + the disco ball

Triptych by Eveliina Anias Nivala

Landscape paintings by Hilkka Liuhala (left) and Kaija Lepola (right)

Featured below: Terhi Vesa

The artist society members were present all the time during opening hours, which was a brilliant way to talk about the pieces, the art scene in Nokia etc. I had a long chat with Hilkka Liuhala about the Finnish tradition of painting forests. To some it may seem like a dreary motif, however some could say the forest are in our nature because that's what covers most of the area of this country. It's not that long ago since the nature was our main source of industry and food either.

I hope you enjoyed this little article!
If you're interested, have a look at the other stuff I've published here