The Museums of Lappeenranta organises various temporary exhibitions at the Lappeenranta Art Museum and the South Karelia Museum.

The temporary exhibitions of the South Karelia Museum feature Lappeenranta, everyday life in South Karelia and various topical culture and cultural history-related themes.

The Lappeenranta Art Museum’s exhibitions showcase visual art phenomena of diverse origins and nature. The main focus is on contemporary art and art from South-Eastern Finland. The museum’s own collections are on exhibit regularly.

See our Permanent exhibitions here.

 

Temporary exhibitions 2026 – 2027

 

South Karelia Museum

Kristiinankatu 15, The Fortress of Lappeenranta

 

28 March – 4 Oct 2026

Save the Art! The Journey from Viipuri to Lappeenranta

In the summer and autumn of 1939, the staff and administration of Viipuri Museum dared to make a momentous decision: the collections of Viipuri Art Museum must be evacuated far from the threatening eastern border. Produced together with the Viipuri Friends of Art Association, the exhibition tells the dramatic true story of the rescue of artworks and of the planners, implementers and enablers behind the operation. The exhibition recreates the atmosphere just before the outbreak of the Winter War and presents the works that remained hidden in their secret refuge until the 1950s and were deposited in the collection of Lappeenranta Art Museum in 1990. A sister exhibition, Save the Art! (Pelastakaa taide!) will open at Hämeenlinna Art Museum in 2027. Both exhibitions are curated by art historian Anna Kortelainen.

 

24 October 2026 – 4 April 2027

Karelian Death Spirits – Glimpses into the Dark History of South Karelia

Why is the horse unable to pull the hearse? What are ristimännyt (cross-marked trees), piiskuupetäjät (whipping pines) or umpipuut (intergrown trees)? Where the wolf witch was burned and who was taken away by the white ferry of death?

The exhibition Karelian Death Spirits (Karjalaista kalmanväkeä) offers a haunting journey into the dark history of South Karelia. Through stories, objects, and photographs it explores beliefs and rituals related to death, peeks into gloomy cemeteries, confronts madness and epidemics, introduces witches and wise men, and examines crimes and the punishments once given out in towns and marketplaces. At the heart of the exhibition are ghost stories and folk beliefs passed down through generations. Learn about the famous Maironniemi Devil, which stirred up chaos in 1888 in Laurinmäki House, Parikkala. Meet the Grey Lady who roams the halls of Imatra State Hotel, the officer’s wife who rides a pale horse in Taavetti Fortress, and the ghostly hearse drawn by a horse near the Korvenkanta underpass in Rauha. These local tales reflect the worldview of their time and bring to life events of the past and the cultural environment in which people lived.

 

Lappeenranta Art Museum

Kristiinankatu 8-10, The Fortress of Lappeenranta

 

30 May – 13 September 2026

Sami Parkkinen – Who Carries the Light

Photographic artist Sami Parkkinen explores, through photography and sculptural works that utilise photographic techniques, human growth, the development of consciousness, the relationship with nature and the human ability to change ways of acting. He seeks to question prevailing notions of human superiority over the rest of nature. Through art, Parkkinen strives to create new understanding of the inseparability, beauty and diversity of the relationship between humans and their environment.

Sami Parkkinen’s solo exhibition at Lappeenranta Art Museum features works from 2010–2026. Light shines through the dark tones. Transience and letting go become beautiful when we recognise our connection to the surrounding world and to life itself. Parkkinen does not see the future as painted solely in dystopian hues. The exhibition believes in the possibility of change and in our capacity to learn, to see and to act differently.

Works by Sami Parkkinen (b. 1974) have been shown in numerous galleries and museums in Finland and abroad, including the National Museum of Finland, Helsinki (2021), the National Portrait Gallery, London (2015), Circulation(s) – Festival de la Jeune Photographie Européenne, Paris (2016) and the Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki (2010). His works are held in major public and private collections.

 

30 May – 13 Sep 2026

Unto Ahjotuli

The exhibition presents works by visual artist Unto Ahjotuli, who passed away in 2024, from the collections of Lappeenranta Art Museum. Ahjotuli was not only a versatile artist but also a significant cultural figure in South Karelia.

 

31 October 2026 – 14 March 2027

Teemu Mäki – War and Us

The exhibition addresses wars, loss of biodiversity and the human relationship with violence and mortality. How do the wars of recent decades and today – in Chechnya, Iraq, Ukraine and Gaza – differ from the wars once fought by Finland, and what do they have in common? What other forms of war exist beyond the clashes between armies or between an army and insurgents? Can economic exploitation be compared to war? What happens if we view the sixth mass extinction caused by humans as a war we are waging against all other living nature? Compassion towards other people or other species cannot be forced, but how can it best be encouraged?

The exhibition consists of paintings, films, installations and texts.

Teemu Mäki (b. 1967, Doctor of Fine Arts) is a writer, visual artist, theatre and film director and researcher living in Helsinki and Lapua, as well as the Chair of the Artists’ Association of Finland. At present he works as a researcher and artist in the project Just and Unjust Environmental Wars, funded by the Kone Foundation, which studies the links between wars and environmental crises.