Expo in Rovaniemi marks independence centenary

A multimedia exhibition titled ‘100 Objects, 100 Pictures’ is now going on at the Regional Museum of Lapland celebrating the independence centenary of Finland.

The exhibition features photographs, archive materials, and objects from the museum’s collections that tell about the history of Rovaniemi and its people in the 100 years spanning from 1917 to 2017. The show launched in February will continue till the beginning of January next year.

“Our museum wanted to join in the celebrations with an exhibition which tells about Finland’s and especially Rovaniemi’s history during the last century,” said Tuija Alariesto, the curator of the exhibition.

Arranged in a chronological order, the exhibition starts from the pictures and objects in 1917, the year that Finland officially claimed it’s independence, then goes through the one-century history of Rovaniemi’s development until 2017.

Following the direction, visitors can immerse in the daily life of those olden days through the objects, for example, some livelihood tools, ordinary clothes, and the pictures of the heart-rending destructions during the Civil War. Photos are there of people rebuilding the city, children playing around, and local events being held after the wartime.

Interestingly, a small detail but an elegant intention is when the exhibition showcases the small pair of shoes of a little girl, Aune, who died of a common disease in 1917, as the beginning. The show ends with another pair of shoes of an old man who made great contributions in the reconstruction of Rovaniemi in the modern time. This symbolises how mature and developed the city has become after all the fluctuations of historical incidents – from a war-ravaged small village to a big city that is now a tourism hub.

By far, the exhibition has gained a lot of attentions from local and foreign visitors, especially teachers and students, who want to learn more about the local history by taking a visual tour. As Alariesto shared, some other people also would like to see more exhibitions like this, which significantly focus on the local history.

Throughout the years of its operation, the Regional Museum of Lapland has been largely supported by the donations of the local people, who have been willing to share their ordinary objects or photos. Hence, this exhibition also presents the importance of donors in recording historical moments of Rovaniemi.

“When people come to our museum and want to give something to our collections, we do not only take care of the object, we also write down the stories of the people, the family’s history or Lapland’s history,” Alariesto said. “In museums, the context and the story of the object are the most important things.”

With almost one year of showcasing, the exhibition is expected to reach more audience interested in the history of Finland in general and Rovaniemi in particular. Most importantly, it has spread the message of preserving the historical values through the archived objects for the future generations.