Pride Month is celebrated in June! Flags fly at the Exhibition Centre WeeGee throughout the month in support of equality, freedom, and human rights. 

EMMA’s Pride Month main event, LGBTQIA+EMMA, will take place on Saturday, 6 June. The programme includes a drag show by Vamp Master Brown, an opera performance by Sam Taskinen and Aleksei Zaitsev, and a high heel race between EMMA’s Director Krist Gruijthuijsen and fashion designer Antrea Kantakoski. The Jossu Reflects Upon Art tour explores questions about life together with visual artist Otto Rummukainen’s alter ego, the non-binary bimbo Jossu. The answers to Jossu’s dilemmas are often found in beer and cigarettes – but this time also in visual art. The event is hosted by Sirkka “Sirkkis” Tälli, a well-known figure who creates an open, warm, and inclusive atmosphere where everyone feels welcome. 

The main event concludes with barn dances by the queer orchestra Harhavietti in the exhibition centre’s lobby from 5.15 to 6.30 pm, after the museums close. One of the hottest new acts on Finland’s schlager scene is ready to set hearts fluttering and feet tapping! The band’s repertoire blends cover versions of cherished classics – melodic melancholy, wistful favourites, and playful irony – something both comfortingly familiar and distinctly their own. Drinks and snacks are available for purchase at Delicatessen WeeGee throughout the event. 

In honour of Pride Month, Pekka Kauhanen’s Art Police sculpture in a roundabout near the Exhibition Centre WeeGee has also been dressed in a spectacular festive outfit! 

“Pride creates space for beauty that challenges normative ideas. Queerness elevates what has been othered, forgotten, misunderstood, and overlooked into the centre of attention,” says Autuas Ukkonen, the designer of the dress. 

The work titled Das liegt bei uns im Blut (MEGA♥SCHÖN!) is based on a desire to recontextualise the “wanhojen tanssit” (Finnish school senior dance), a heteronormative tradition that Ukkonen describes as being almost a parody of gender stereotypes in a modern context. However, the tradition also carries the idea of a “princess day” – a moment when one can feel beautiful. Ukkonen believes this sense of beauty becomes embedded in the dresses themselves. They have harnessed those moments of beauty carried within the dresses into one monumental, mega-beautiful installation. The piece takes its name from Carl Michael Ziehrer’s polka-mazurka Das liegt bei uns im Blut, a traditional part of the senior dance repertoire. 

“I want to realize my lifelong fantasy of surrounding myself with princess dresses, while also giving these discarded dresses a new, freer life,” Ukkonen explains. 

Wed 3 June from 5–6 pm Literary Discussion at KAMU: The Works of Christer Kihlman and an Overview of Contemporary Queer Literature 

Wed 3 June from 6–8.30 pm WeeGee Live: Sonia + LEAK 

Fri 5 June from 6–7.30 pm WeeGee Live: Superposition 

Sat 6 June from 2–6.30 pm LGBTQIA+EMMA: Drag, Opera, and Barn Dance 

Sun 7 June from 11 am – 4 pm WeeGee Live: Family Day 

Tue 9 June from 4.30–7 pm WeeGee Live: Asla Jo + kaio 

Thu 11 June from 6–8 pm WeeGee Live x KAMU Pride: Modem & Sattalite 

Wed 17 June from 5–7 pm Qoomikot stand up -afterwork at KAMU 

Fri 26 June from 5.30–6.15 pm Queer Tour at EMMA  

All events are open to everyone – welcome! 

We are all jointly responsible for a safer museum space. A sense of safety comes from how we treat one another. At EMMA, we let everyone be themselves, foster open discussion, and address inappropriate behaviour. Learn more about the museum’s safer space principles.