In the spring of 2022, I started searching for a workshop space for my own artistic work. During the pandemic, I had been working from our tiny home in Punavuori, Helsinki — needles and glue scattered across the floor of an even tinier office space, kept just out of reach from a curious toddler, all squeezed into a 60-square-meter apartment.
By chance, I stumbled upon a street-level space, about 25 square meters, at Kankurinkatu 5. I decided to rent it. At first, I thought I’d use the space to continue working with our playful project, Mur Mur Moderators — the concept of interactive seats we created back in 2013 at the University of Tampere. But as summer unfolded, I realized this newly found creative space was offering something more.
My years of work with the Finnish Museum of Games had left me with dozens of ideas for exhibitions. Like any museum, our curatorial calendar was packed years in advance. While I had the privilege of curating four changing exhibitions for the museum’s Studio space since 2016, some of my ideas didn’t quite fit the traditional museum context. They leaned more toward art than history or preservation.
The ideas made the decision for me: it was time to start a new project. I founded my own gallery — Kumma Gallery. I self-proclaimed myself The Ludic Gallerist and set out to plan operations with a playful and artistic mindset.
For a reason, the first exhibition had to be something more than just “fun and joysticks.” Our conception of playable art is often too narrow, tied tightly to nostalgia and digital cultures. I wanted to offer a different perspective on the relationship between games and art. In Finland, the gaming industry employs about 4,000 professionals, of which roughly 1,000 work in visual arts roles. Every game has a person behind it — games, despite their technological sheen, are not born from automation. They are crafted by teams of creative individuals, many of whom have roots in traditional, non-digital art forms. I wanted to shine a light on that.
That’s how the idea for Artists of Play was born.
For the inaugural exhibition at Kumma Gallery in November 2022, seven artists working in game studios showcased their traditional media works — oil paintings, aquarelles, charcoal drawings, and mixed media pieces. This exhibition opened up a broader view of what playful art can be.
It wasn’t until the fourth exhibition, in September 2023, that we finally dipped into some retro games aesthetics — close to my heart through the phenomenon of game jams. We featured the massive collection of Samuli Jääskeläinen, who has participated in over 100 game jams since 2012! Many of his pieces were performative, including a wild experiment where games were made while riding a tandem bicycle. Although the bike itself was too large to fit in our cozy 15-square-meter gallery, about 50 of Samuli’s jam games were available to play during the show.
This art curation/creation project has been deeply fulfilling, I have been showcasing an exhibition of photoplay, there has been game poems playable in the gallery, a world premiere of concept art of an indie game has taken place at my space, and also my students’ jam games have gotten a nice spotlight at the heart of the design district of Helsinki. And there’s so much more I want to explore. My own character play pieces will soon get a sequel in an upcoming exhibition featuring also playful pottery. I am also anticipating a finalizing of my photography set (or more accurately a collection of photocopy play) for the gallery. A mix of different forms — visual art, performance, interactive art, playful experiments — will continue to shape my exploration of what playful and playable art can be. Through creation and curation.
If you ever find yourself in Helsinki, check to see if an exhibition is on — you’re warmly welcome! More details can be found at: https://kummagames.com/
AaKoo's Game Lab 