Welcome to celebrate the Night of the Arts at the Salus Building!

At the heart of the Wihuri Foundation’s visual arts activities is its art collection, which grows each year with new contemporary works. Donated to the Rovaniemi Art Museum, the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation Collection is one of Finland’s most significant contemporary art collections, comprising nearly 4,000 works: paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, installations, and videos.

For the Night of the Arts, we’ll explore some of the newest additions to the collection with the artists themselves. Invited artists will share the stories and creative processes behind their works, talk about their practices, and engage in dialogue with the audience.

Where? Salus Building, Kalliolinnantie 4, 00140 Helsinki
When? August 14, 2025, 17:00–19:00

Registration: The event is free of charge, but the venue has limited capacity – please register by August 12 to secure your spot.

Artist Talks

Hugo Murtoniemi & Rastapunka introduce the audience to unconventional field research and some of the urban art that has emerged from it.

Leena Nio speaks about her recent painting(s), where woven surfaces, playful shifts in scale, and intimate reflections on closeness that binds us together recur.

Iona Roisin discusses their video work An Uncountable Number of Threads, which was filmed during group trips in Russia in 2019. The video, also screened at the event, examines the ethical limits of traditional travelogues and asks how (and why) such a narrative might be constructed.

The event at Salus House is part of the Night of the Arts, which fills Helsinki’s streets, neighborhoods, parks, and shops with hundreds of free art events on Thursday, August 14. Celebrated in the city since 1989, the Night of the Arts is part of the Helsinki Festival.

Please note: The venue is not fully accessible. There are steps at the entrance and raised thresholds at the doors.

Artists

Iona Roisin (b. 1989) is a British artist and poet based in Helsinki. Working with text and moving image, their practice explores modes of making, difficulty, intimacy, failure, and the insufficiency of language.

Leena Nio (b. 1982) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2010. Her meticulously composed, layered oil paintings use tight framing to highlight everyday details. Nio is known both for her exhibition works and for public commissions, including the Dreamscapes series at Finnoo Metro Station (2021) and the Painting Machine installation at EMMA, created with Kalle Nio.

Hugo Murtoniemi (b. 1995) holds a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in spring 2024. His work addresses the question: why is painting not enough?

Rastapunka (b. 1984) is a wandering urban artist working both solo and collaboratively on a project basis—often in public spaces and sometimes without anyone noticing. His works have appeared in settings such as the bear enclosure at Korkeasaari Zoo, on the Hudson River in New York, and at the Helsinki City Museum.

Cover image: A still photo from the video piece An Uncountable Number of Theads by Iona Roisin.