Helsinki will be the World Design Capital for 2012. In order to make Finland visible before the World Design Capital year, the city and Finnish design are already being displayed abroad.
Text Ida Kukkapuro
Photos Bernhard Ludewig, Perttu Saksa
French Films has shot to indie fame quite quickly. It’s undoubtedly the most blogged about Finnish pop band and one of the first Finnish bands to make waves outside of Finland thanks to foreign music blogs. This year the band is set to fulfill the expectations they have created.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Photos Sanna Lehto
Islaja is one of the biggest names in the Finnish forest folk genre. Despite this, her music is nothing like forests – or folk.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Photos Hertta Kiiski
Indie is the new mainstream, and electro is the new dance. In the early 2000s masses of artists fled to Barcelona. Now Berlin has become the unofficial second home of Finnish musicians.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Photos Johannes Ekholm
Ping pong, ballroom dancing, bicycle-fixing, spoken word poetry, stand up comedy, politics… What more could you wish for in Helsinki’s nightlife?
Text Teemu Fiilin
Le Corps Mince Françoise dig the blue Leonardo Di Caprio from the end of Titanic. This Helsinki-based electro-pop trio has a British manager, pr-agency and booking agent, and their tour calendar features gigs in the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands as well as back home in Finland.
Text Heini Lehtinen
Photos LCMDF
Running an indie record company with its own terms and own policy might seem like an easy job to an outsider. It’s not, however – ask the founders of New Judas, a Helsinki-based label that focuses on electronic club music.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Photos Kai Kuusisto
Light snow 
20X0 – A Journey into the Future
8. October 2011
Heureka – The Finnish Science Centre
Seven Connections – Finnish Architecture Abroad
11. January 2012
Museum of Finnish Architecture
Yellow City – Illustrated Stories from Helsinki
16. January 2012
All around the city
20. January 2012
Kiasma – Museum of Contemporary Art
DesignWorld – Designing the New World
27. January 2012
Design Museum
Bi-monthly magazine about Helsinki. In Finnish and in English.
