"A Helsinki Guggenheim,” says Petra Havu of the Association of Finnish Artists, “is not a project for taxpayers’ money.”
“It represents a supreme lack of imagination,” adds Jörn Donner, the veteran Finnish politician, actor, director and producer who won Finland’s only Oscar for his work with Ingmar Bergman on Fanny and Alexander. “It is part of an insecure, provincial view of the world.”
As you might gather, the announcement made in Venice at the beginning of this month of an international competition for the design of a new Guggenheim museum for the Finnish capital is already raising hackles in Helsinki.
