Pienten Helsinki
My Museum Buddy and I: Amos Rex at Lasippalatsi
The Amos Rex museum opening at Lasipalalsi on Thursday, August 30th invited younger museum visitors to get acquainted with the brand new museum in advance. This time, my toddler museum buddy and I enjoyed the anticipation, and we got to see something unprecedented.
Amos Rex is currently best known for the stone cockerels that have given Lasipalalsi’s square a new look, and the most adventurous ones can even peek into the museum. We tried climbing the cockerels a few weeks ago with two little ones, but a word of warning is in order: the fun-looking lumps are actually really steep. For older children, the place is definitely an experience, but with younger kids, caution is certainly warranted. It’s worth seeing in any case, so it’s worth stopping by just to wonder at it.
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Stairs leading to Amos Rex’s entrance hall and the magnificent Lasipalalsi.[/caption]
We got to visit the much-praised museum in advance together with kindergarten groups and school classes. The magnificent Lasipalalsi has taken on an even more magnificent appearance, and the sight is certainly impressive. At the ticket counter and coat racks, you have to stop and marvel and hope that someone would just peek out from the skylight opening onto Lasipalalsi square. The museum’s main entrance is on Mannerheimintie, with an accessible entrance on the Lasipalalsi side. At street level, you’ll find the museum shop, and the museum experience itself is underground. In addition to white stairs, two impressive blue glowing elevators with elevator music lead to the museum level.
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The hall’s spectacular ceiling draws visitors’ attention.[/caption]
The opening exhibitions take visitors into very different worlds: Sigurd Frosterus’s collection is a classical art exhibition, Tokyo-based teamLab brings to Amos Rex something that has not been seen in Helsinki before.
The teamLab exhibition, or rather art experience, is a dive into different worlds through images, sound, lights, and shadows. It’s like stepping into the artwork itself. The exhibition is in different rooms, all of which are dark and full of reflective surfaces, so the exhibition space is difficult to comprehend. Fortunately, museum guides identifiable by their space suits were on hand to give us good tips and guidance. Some of the rooms and worlds were thrilling for my little museum buddy, and in one artwork room we were warned very strongly about flashing lights. However, we enjoyed the exhibition because the large space filled with colorful flowers and animals worked wonderfully with a child as well and made the adults happy too. My museum buddy squealed with joy trying to catch the flowers appearing on the floor and the lizards slithering between our feet. Standing still allowed the flower sea to grow around the viewer.
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Amos Rex and the teamLab artist group from Tokyo exhibition.[/caption]
Amidst the flowers and animals, museum visitors also get to participate in making art: there are rooms where you can color a drawing and scan it as part of the artwork. Soon, the lizard my museum buddy colored was moving around on the exhibition floor.
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Amos Rex also offers activities: museum visitors can add more moving parts by coloring in teamLab’s artwork.[/caption]
Sigurd Frosterus’s collection exhibition is beautiful and harmonious, but admittedly pales somewhat next to the impressive video and light art. At least with the children, we couldn’t enjoy this part, as the charm of the flowers in the next room was more enticing.
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In Sigurd Frosterus’s collection exhibition, classical art is on display.[/caption]
Amos Rex works surprisingly well with children. However, for someone who fears the dark or dislikes loud noises, the teamLab exhibition can be frightening. The exhibition spaces are truly dark and at least on a first visit, maze-like, and when entering the hall, your eyes are almost blinded by the bright hall.
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Amos Rex and the teamLab artist group exhibition.[/caption]
Amos Rex has also posted a well-deserved guide for visiting the museum with children on their website (if only all museums remembered this!). Great instructions and guidance without rigid preaching and understanding the children’s perspective even when visiting museums. You can move around Amos Rex with strollers, but you can also leave them to wait in the hall, where space is reserved for strollers. The museum also has a child care room and accessible restrooms.
The street-level museum shop and its selection looked very interesting. We bought small lizards as a souvenir from the preview experience, but many interesting gift ideas remained to be discovered.
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The Amos Rex museum shop is located on Mannerheimintie next to the museum’s main entrance.[/caption]
The museum visit left us speechless. It’s something I hadn’t experienced before. From the perspective of moving around with children, the museum’s spaces and location work well, and the staff’s attitude towards children seems very positive. At first glance, at least, Amos Rex brings more child-friendliness to Helsinki. We’ll be back here!
Amos Rex opens on Thursday, August 30th at 11 a.m. The teamLab exhibition is on display until January 2019.
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Dance theater Hurjaruuth entertained opening guests.[/caption]
