Sanna Kauppinen Projections Turn Tampere Streets into a Mythical Forest

From 23 October 2026 to 28 February 2027, Light Gallery will project Sanna Kauppinen's delicate drawings onto buildings across western downtown Tampere, the City of Tampere says.

The images reimagine the city as a storybook forest, populated by creatures drawn from Finnish mythology and the artist's imagination. Among them are a forest-king bear perched on Otavainen's shoulder and a bear-girl who falls in love and marries a bear. Kauppinen, who lives and works in Tampere and is known for precise line drawings of animals, trees and imaginary beings, says the works "draw on beliefs related to the bear but do not merely illustrate existing stories; they have evolved into a visual language of their own, rising from the deep layers of my subconscious and the playgrounds of imagination, a time when people lived in a soulful connection with the forest."

The project is a joint production of Tampere Art Museum and Tampere Light Weeks and has been part of the city's cultural programme since 2015. The display forms part of the Tampere Festival of Lights programme, which opens on 23 October with a new chamber opera and the ten-day Flow of Equality light-art trail that anchor the festival.

Displays run evenings 16:00–23:00 and mornings 06:00–08:00. A map and catalogue are at valoviikot.fi. Free guided walks with the artist start at the corner of Aleksis Kiven katu 18 and Puutarhakatu 5 (the Kela corner) on Thursday 29 October and Thursday 19 November at 18:00, each lasting about 45 minutes.