The National Romantic and Symbolist movements of the turn Of the century gave rise to the golden age of Finnish art. Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) created an imagery from the Kalevala which is still part of the national identity. The drawings and watercolours of Hugo Simberg (1873-1917), Gallen-Kallela s pupil and prot g , are highly prized today. Simberg translated Finnish folk tales into a fairytale world of his own, people with little devils and wounded angels.
Women painters made their mark early in Finland. Fanny Churberg (1845-1892) was a bold stylist and colourist who paved the way for her younger colleagues, such as Maria Wiik (1853-1928) and Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1945).
The Parisian-style naturalism introduced in Finland by Schjerfbeck and her sister painters aroused considerable controversy at the time. Over the years, Schjerfbeck developed into a highly individualistic, elegant modernist, whose work has only recently begun togain the international attention it deserves.
The role of the women in Finnish art has continued to grow. Today s pioneers, such as Marita Liulia (b. 1957) and Henrietta Lehtonen (b.1965), work with new media , such as CD-ROM and video art.
Postwar Finnish art has been marked by a debate between Constructivism and Expressionism, intellectual control and emotional extravagance. The precise, carefully planned forms of Sam Vanni (1908 1993), Juhana Blomstedt (b. 1937) and Matti Kujasalo (b. 1945) contrast with a pitiless dissection of emotions in the works of Aimo Kanerva (1909 1991), Marika Makela (b. 1947) and Marjetta Tapiola (b. 1951).
Today s young gegnartion prefers to maintain an ironic distance form the archetypal Finnish images. A frequently seen guest at the international forums of the 90s is Esko Mannikko (b. 1959), a photographer specializing in portraits of humble northern folk, particulary lonely backwoodsmen, and a Vermeerean virtuoso of atmosphere.
Notable Finnish artworks can also be found outside galleries and museums. Although many of the wall paintings in the mediaeval greystone churches were hidden behind a coat of whitewash in the days of the Lutheran Reformation, some remarkably evocative frescoes from the early sixteenth century have been preserved, notably in the churches of Hattula, Lohja and Rymattyla. The colourful figures of saints in ancient altar screens were also destroyed after the Reformation, with the result that the interiors of most Finnish churches are extremely ascetic.
The country s oldest artworks, however, are rock paintings dating from between 3000 B.C. to the beginning of the Christian Era. They mostly depict game elk, deer and bear hunted and worshipped by the nomadic tribes of the north. The same motifs can be found in ritual objects, the finest of which are genuine works of art.
2.4 Music and dance
Music
40 years of Finnish rock
Rock music came ashore in Finland as in other Western European countries in the late 1950s. To begin with the Finnish bands mainly copied and admired their models across the Atlantic. The very title of a great hit at the time says a lot: Onni Gideon and Hawaiian Rock.
Many of the popular performers of the 1950s and early 1960s in fact hovered somewhere between rock and the more traditional Schlager or hit. The star who occasionally branched out into rock in order to draw in a wider audience was very common at the time.
Guitar bands hit even in Japan
The period nevertheless spawned a number of guitar bands. The boom of the early 60s gave Finnish rock its first taste of success abroad; The Sounds’ Manchurian Beat hit the charts in Japan.
The upsurge of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones gave the guitar bands increasing impetus. Jormas, Topmost and Blues Section were among the most popular bands of the time, but their repertoires were still firmly rooted in those of their foreign idols.
These bands nevertheless released the first real Finnish albums and many of their members still play an active part in Finnish musical life.
National favourites
As the 60s drew to a close, the national favourites began to stand out more and more: pop stars such as Danny (”Finland’s Johnny Halliday”) and the pioneers of the new styles.
Among the latter were Wigwam and Tasavallan Presidentti. Wigwam, with English-born Jim Pembroke at the helm, started out as a pop group pure and simple nut gradually sailed into the more progressive waters represented right from the outset by guitarist Jukka Tolonen’s Tasavallan Presidentti.
A big effort was made in the mid-1970s to send Wigwam into global orbit with an advertising campaign that outstripped anything ever seen before by a Finnish band and handled by the legendary British company Virgin.
By this time the Wigwam ranks were, however, beginning to fall into disarray and the final breakthrough was never made. Of all the Wigwam members, the one to make the most successful solo career has been bass player Pekka Pohjola, in fusion music.
70s: beginning of the Finnish rock culture
The Finnish rock of the 70s, and specifically that sung in Finnish, finally got established so that the country could at last claim to have a rock culture all of its own. But despite their foreign-sounding names, neither Hector, nor Juice Leskinen nor Dave Lindholm managed to make any headway abroad.
There was by contrast one major band that made it to the top before the punk rock wave of the 1970s. The Hurriganes meant rock with a capital R. Their no-nonsense thud was something quite new and they got well-deserved publicity in Sweden, too.
In Finland as elsewhere, punk swept the floor of most of the attitudes of the previous generation, though its leaders admittedly became no more than national heroes; none but collectors have ever heard of Pelle Miljoona or Eppu Normaali outside Finland.
Hanoi Rocks
The bird that rose from the ashes of the punk explosion was nevertheless a peacock. Hanoi Rocks was a dazzling, daredevil band of five whose great international breakthrough has never yet been equalled by any other Finnish band.
Hanoi Rocks was something of a trailblazer for such megabands as Guns ‘n Roses, but it lost much of its glitter on the streets of Los Angeles when its drummer was killed in a car crash in December 1984. Of the remaining members, both guitarist Andy McCoy and vocalist Michael Monroe have tried to make a solo career, with varying success. The neon lights of the big wide world have nevertheless been abandoned in favour of a quieter life at home in Finland.
Inspired by Hanoi’s example, Finland was virtually swamped with would-be exporters singing in English in the mid-1980s. The Helsinki bands Smack, Havana Black and Nights of Iguana even made it all the way to Los Angeles.
In the end these bands lacked either luck, patience or funds and one by one their musicians wandered off home until soon there was no band left.
The same fate befell Gringos Locos, a band hatching its plans in Finland, and Melrose, whose guitar twang akin to rockabilly called forth a response in Central Europe.
Hardcore: a Finnish invention?
Finnish rock has in fact carried considerable prestige in the musical subcultures of the world ever since the mid-1980s. The hardcore punks did a lot to help it on its way in this respect through the Propaganda label and such bands as Riistetyt, Terveet K det and Lama. Some say that hardcore itself is a Finnish invention.
A twist all of their own was given by Sielun Veljet gigging abroad under such names as L’Amourder and applying themselves with zest to performances in the Soviet Union as it gradually opened up.
More recent examples include the humorous Leningrad Cowboys who have done their best to burnish the image of Finland by means of fairly big money and mobile phones, and their rather more underground-minded soul brother, the crazy oompah band El kel iset.
The more experimental eccentrics such as Jimi Tenor and Pan Sonic recording on British labels have also been vital pieces in the Finnish music jigsaw of the nineties.
Tradition and mainstream
The increasingly fragmented music field of the present decade also has room for some more traditional subcultures. Honey B & T-Bones have been performing more traditional swamp blues and 22-Pistepirkko their urban blues for years both in Finland and abroad. Thee Ultra Bimboos have specialised in trash rock that has gone down a treat in Germany, particularly, while Laika & The Cosmonauts have made a hit with their biting surf-minded instrumentals.
The mainstream artists have, with the exception of a few of the bigger heavy rock names (Amorphis, Apocalyptica, Stratovarious, Sentenced, Waltari), had less part to play in the drive to export Finnish rock. Typically Finnish artists such as Don Huonot, Ultra Bra and J. Karjalainen have, by contrast, had a real party on the sales lists. There is still a bigger demand in Finland for domestic music than there is in the rest of Europe, in this case both rock in Finnish and the thriving Schlager culture.
Dance
Dance has always been an international art form in Finland, with strong ties to the neighbouring centres Stockholm and St. Petersburg. The influence of St. Petersburg is obvious in the development of ballet in Finland while Stockholm has become a second home for many Finnish dancers in this century.
Helsinki is clearly the centre of Finnish dance, although the field has expanded greatly in the past few decades. The professional dance education that begun to develop in the major cities during the 1980 s has taken dance culture beyond the capital. The 1990 s have been a period of strong artistic growth, bringing about the foundation of not only new dance groups, but also new festivals, production centres and, foremost, new work and production methods.
It is often difficult to approach the myth of the primitive strength of Finnish art. It is also impossible to distinguish the myth from reality, which is the cause and which the effect? Though the majority of the Finns live in cities and though high technology has intruded into the smallest villages, the myth maintains a picture of a country of a thousand lakes and forests.
Nevertheless, Finnish dance lives and breathes to the urban rhythm. Finnish dance is still created by Finnish dancers in Finland. On the other hand, Finnish dance reflects influences from all the trends in modern and contemporary dance. German dance theatre and Japanese butoh have contributed most, as well as contact improvisation and release techniques. In spite of this, Finnish dance remains isolated, for better or worse. Its aesthetic arises from a cultural scenery dominated by the functional severity of Finnish design and architecture. Perhaps that explains why the physical is so emphasised in Finnish dance.
Finland is mainly a country of literature, theatre and music, where the corporal aspect in general has made people feel uneasy. The culture, which cannot speak of the body, expresses otherwise reflected physical attitudes and aspects through dance. In Finnish culture, dance gains its significance in relation to the prevailing Lutheran concept of humanity and a way of life moulded by the austere conditions of the North.
Many of the Finnish choreographers are more concerned with the physical expressiveness than with the quality of movement. The aim has not been to cultivate nor tidy the body; rather to free than to add cultural control. The late rise of a dance culture has further heightened this view of the body as the sole signifier in dance.
Dance Policy
In looking back at the focal points of dance policy it is possible to distinguish two obvious trends: on the one hand, the strong development of professional education within the fields in the 1980s and, on the other hand, the attempt to strengthen the position of dance theatres by bringing them in the realm of regular government support. Higher education in the field began in 1983 at the Department of Dance of the Theatre Academy in Helsinki. Soon thereafter, four more professional schools were established in different parts of the country. Training in classical ballet is on the shoulders of the ballet school, started in 1922 of the Finnish National Opera.
Dance companies, including the Finnish National Ballet employ less the 30 pr cent of all dancers. The issue of supporting the freelance artists and young dance artists and connecting them to the Finnish dance field is a major challenge to dance policy. The national council for dance has noted this problem and for its part supports individual choreographers. In addition to safeguarding the basic conditions required for artistic activity there are issues related to the social status of artists and to taxation and the economic status of retired dancers are yet to be resolved. The public funding is not likely to grow notably in the present political atmosphere which favours cuts in public sector spending
2.5 Food
Finnish food has elements of both Western and eastern cuisine s, with a lot of variations and local specialities. Potato is the staple food, served with various fish or meat sauces. Furthermore Finnish people eat nowadays a lot of pasta, pizzas, kebab, Tex-Mex etc. The issue of family meal varies a lot. Some families never eat together, because the work-, school-and activity times might be very uncomfortable to fit in a meal at a certain time. Some families, on the other hand, always eat together. In the weekends, family meals are quite common. It is also common, that some families eat their Saturday or Sunday meal at the restaurant once a month. The afternoon snacks after school are typically tea or hot chocolate with bread, yoghurt or corn flakes and fruit. Keep
In mind, that part of the learning during your exchange period is to get accustomed to our food traditions. Remember to say always “Thank you” (kitos) after a meal to the person who made the food.
Chapter 3
The country of Finland
3.1 Landscape
The landscape of Finland is pretty varied. A sparsely populated country in the far north-east corner of Europe, Finland is nevertheless a midsize European state in terms of land area. Almost one quarter of the country s territory lies north of the Arctic Circle, making Finland the world s northernmost country together with Iceland. In the south and west, Finland is bounded by the Baltic sea, offering a direct sea route to the Continent. The broken coastline in the south-west gradually gives way to the Saaristomeri, or Archipelago Sea, unique in the world for the amount, variety and closeness of its islands. All in all, Finland s territorial waters count over 80000 islands, the two largest being the main island of the Aland group and Kemio, just southeast of the big city of Turku.
Finland lies on the western side of the Eurasian zone, the taiga. The forests are characterised by many different species: the only trees of any economic meaning are pine, spruce and the birch. Although Finland extends from the northern boundary of the oak zone to the bare sub-arctic fells, the country has no mountain ranges proper. The highest altitudes are in the country s north-western arm , the Econtekio region, an outliner of the Scandic fells featuring Finland s highest peak Halti with it s 1328 meters.
The lie of the land is characterised by small-scale variation. Most of the country is low-lying, and slopes gently towards the south or south-east. Eastern Finland is dotted with lakes and high hills: the rolling landscape of Central Finland gives way in the west to the Ostrobothnian plains, with lowlands in other coastal areas. The bare, rugged fells of Lapland are separated by canyons with turbulent rivers.
The topography is founded on the ancient bedrock, most of which was formed some 1800-1900 million years ago. In contrast, the soil is very young, for the glaciers of the last Ice Age carried off virtually all-loose matter. A reminder of this relatively recent period of glaciation is the uplift phenomenon, which continues to remodel the landscape, increasing the country s land area by some 7 square kilometres every year.
Finland has something like 188.000 lakes, more than almost any other country in the world. Lakes constitute about 10 per cent of Finland s total area; indeed, in some parts of the country a quarter or even half of the surface is under water. Most of the lakes are very small, but the largest, Greater Saimaa, ranks fourth in Europe and forty-third in the world.
The rivers are mostly short and have relatively small discharge, as none of the watersheds are far from the coast. The principal watershed is called Maanselka, which separates the rivers running into the Baltic Sea (91%) from those discharging into the Arctic Ocean and the White Sea (9%) The longest river is the Kemijoki-Kitinen (552 Km).
The aquatic environment is unique. The smooth-worn bedrock, the Ice Age and uplift have together created a veritable maze of waterways. The large lakes of Central Finland are virtually at the same altitude. Between them meanders an endless succession of narrows and slow-flowing straits, interspersed with inlets, headlands, and islands. The lakes contain a total of nearly 100.000 islands, the second highest number in the world after Canada.