During Helsinki Design Week, a city-wide festival encompassing design, architecture and fashion, the public will be offered several fascinating new perspectives on Marimekko design.

For the Night of the Arts event on 27 August 2010 starting at 5 p.m., the windows of the Marimekko flagship store in the Kämp Galleria shopping centre will be transformed into an immersive art installation fusing printed textiles and animation. The installation is a collaborative effort created by two young artists that work under the name of KARIEL (Karri Kuoppala and Muriel Lässer).

The artists were inspired by Marimekko’s boldly coloured repeating patterns and the installation brings together classic Marimekko pattern elements in a familiar yet surprising way. It tells a story about reinterpreting the patterns in a physical and also moving image format that forms the centrepiece of the windows installation. The unique art pieces can be admired in the Marimekko Kämp Galleria shop windows until 5 September.

Karri Kuoppala, who has a background in graffiti art, is active in both producing and curating exhibitions. Karri regularly contributes to the URB festival organised by the Kiasma Theatre of the museum of contemporary art in Helsinki, and has exhibited in China, the United States, and a variety of countries in Europe.
Muriel Lässer is originally from Zurich, Switzerland, and lives in Helsinki. She comes from a graphic design background and switched to fine arts at the beginning of the 2000s. Muriel has exhibited her work in several countries on a global scale. The core of her practice lies in painting and its various expressions.

Marimekko’s stand at the Habitare fair is on show from 1 to 5 September. The highlight of the display is the new Marimekko glassware designed by Anu Penttinen. The charming, distinctive glasses are entitled Socks Rolled Down and are accompanied by other members of the In Good Company tableware family as well as textiles from Marimekko’s current interior collection.

Marimekko’s fashion design is represented at the Helsinki Design Week festival by photographs of Mika Piirainen’s autumn collection, taken by Daniela Talvitie, a Brazilian fashion photographer. Daniela’s Fashion Photo Helsinki exhibition will run in Design Museum from 27 August till 19 September.

MARIMEKKO CORPORATION
Marketing Communications

Tiina Alahuhta-Kasko
Head of PR
Tel. +358 9 758 7328
Fax: +358 9 759 1676
E-mail: tiina.alahuhta-kasko@marimekko.fi