Purkutaide 10 years · This Is What I Want to Say · Helsinki · 16 May – 18 October 2026
Don't just look at art.
Step inside it.
Walk into 55 completely different worlds. Spaces that once stood empty filled with beauty, strangeness, ideas and experiences as ninety artists made them their own. When the exhibition ends, these works cease to exist.
01 — The idea
Empty spaces. One room. One artist. Total freedom.
All across Finland, buildings stand empty, waiting for a new purpose or for demolition. At the same time, artists have ideas but too rarely the space to realise them. Since 2016, Purkutaide has brought the two together, giving hundreds of artists the chance to turn empty buildings into temporary worlds of art.
There are no quiet white cubes here. For us, more is more. In our exhibitions you walk through the works, from one artist's reality into the next. Paintings, soundscapes and installations surround you from floor to ceiling.
We build our exhibitions as much as possible from recycled materials and other people's surplus. Each exhibition is a singular, unrepeatable whole. When the season ends and the works are taken down, they are gone for good.
02 — Inside the rooms
Beauty. Strangeness. Ideas. Experiences. Along a single corridor.
90 artists. 55 rooms. No two alike. Here are four of them.
Photo: Ilkka Vuorinen & Kiia-Bettina HaikolaHymytytöt: Smile (and stay quiet)!
At first glance, many of Purkutaide's works look like something entirely different from what they're really about. Is this room joyful, or does something else hide behind the smile?
Photo: Ilkka Vuorinen & Kiia-Bettina HaikolaMaya Hahto: What We Leave Behind
At the centre of the space stands a vast tree, built by hand, dragging up with its roots the legacy of past generations. What do we leave behind?
Photo: Ilkka Vuorinen & Kiia-Bettina HaikolaJanne Parviainen: Art Is Human History
Humans have always left traces of themselves. From cave paintings to today's installations, art tells us who we have been. What would our world be like without it?
Photo: Ilkka Vuorinen & Kiia-Bettina HaikolaSISU collective: At the Bottom
There are more than 150 million tonnes of plastic waste in the world's oceans. It's easy to look away from the problem, since most of the waste has sunk below the surface. Dive into the depths and listen.
On now · 2026
This Is What I Want to Say
“This Is What I Want to Say”
Ten years of Purkutaide. Over a hundred thousand visitors later, the old University of Art and Design spaces at Arabia 135 have filled with the thoughts, observations and worlds of 90 artists. Come hear what they want to say.
Purkutaide isn't the only reason to come to Arabia – but it's an excellent reason to start your day there. In the same block you'll find restaurants, cafés, museums, design shops and creative makers that make it easy to spend the whole day in the area.
03 — The scale
04 — Before it's gone
See it before
it's gone.
The exhibition exists for a limited time only. The building is temporary. The works were made for these rooms and cannot be recreated. When it ends, the experience disappears.