Tove Janssons fresker i Helsinki rådhus. Heterotopier i det offentlige rom.

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this thesis is to examine the Finnish-Swedish artist Tove Jansson’s fresco paintings Party in the City and Party in the Countryside (1947), a commissioned work for the Restaurant Stadskällaren, in the City Hall of Helsinki, Finland. In particular, the thesis puts focus on an analysis and interpretation of the frescoes as heterotopias in public spaces, using the theoretical framework designed by Michel Foucault in Of Other Spaces (1984). Jansson’s frescoes are then compared with the norm in the tradition of public art in the Nordic countries Norway and Finland, in the post-war period in the 1940s and early 1950s. The Norwegian artist Per Krohg’s monumental fresco painting The City and its Countryside (1940-1949/ 1950) functions as an example on the norm. The first part of this dissertation presents a formal study of both Jansson’s and Krohg’s frescoes, followed by a formal and motive comparison between the two artworks. The second part focuses on the concept of utopia, and on the concept of heterotopia as described by Foucault; furthermore, this part is followed by an analysis of the two artists’ works in the context to the post-war period in Finland and Norway. The last part suggests an interpretation of Jansson’s frescoes as heterotopic spaces. Starting with some considerations on the lesbian and homosexual communities in Finland in the same period - where acting out and promote a lesbian or homosexual identity was criminalized, punishable and defined as a mental disorder - this chapter focuses on the two artworks as an expression for the need of the individual’s Freedom. The frescoes are contextualized across Jansson’s biography, her other artworks, the public opinion and governmental politic and law-system. The Finnish artist Tom of Finland’s series Pleasure Park is also taken as an example of the floating transition between utopias and heterotopias.