New online map service provides a guide to public art in Lahti

14.10.2024

The new art map service is a guide to public sculptures found around the city of Lahti. The map is available on Malva’s website, encouraging people to explore the art around them and to see the city in a new light.

A diverse collection of over 100 public sculptures from various periods are on display around the city of Lahti. Handy access to their data is now available via the Lahti Museum of Visual Arts Malva website: malvamuseo.fi/en/public-art-on-the-map/. The map service improves accessibility by placing the collection and its data at everyone’s fingertips on a 24/7 platform.

You can browse the list of works or search for a specific sculpture by its title, artist or medium. There is also a map visualizing the location of each sculpture. The map is designed to get people on the move by helping them navigate on foot and discover art gems hidden around the city.

City of Lahti Collections Curator Silja Koskimies is delighted with the map service and hopes that it will encourage people to get out and explore art in their daily environment. “When you’re walking around the city, you may not always notice all the artworks hidden there, but now the collection is easy to browse in one place – you might even start to see the city from a whole new perspective!”

Lahti’s public art dates back over a century

Some of Lahti’s public sculptures date back over a century. The oldest statues are Viktor Jansson’s Statue of Liberty and Urho Heinänen’s After the Battle, both dating from around the arrival of the twenties. Many bronzes were commissioned during the city’s peak growth in the fifties and sixties, including Veikko Leppänen’s Equestrian Statue of Mannerheim and The Elk by Jussi Mäntynen. Between 1989 and 1992, Olavi Lanu completed twelve concrete sculptures forming an environmental ensemble that blends seamlessly with the natural setting of Kariniemi forest.

Since 2000, Lahti’s collection of public art has diversified rapidly through the addition of murals, community projects, and environmental art. A wide array of new media are represented among recent acquisitions, including Jan-Erik Andersson’s The Second Awakening, Akseli Leinonen’s Village Gate, and the Art Axis project on Rautatienkatu [street].

The public sculptures in the City of Lahti Collection are managed by Malva.