Kohti tuntematonta – Pasi Pitkänen’s illustrations of thrilling adventures – Art and literary art workshops for schoolchildren

The Kohti tuntematonta (‘Towards the Unknown’) exhibition and workshop invites schoolchildren to embark on adventures in imaginative worlds. The workshops are intended for children in grades 3–6. The workshops utilise literary and visual art to explore an exhibition consisting of Pasi Pitkänen’s skilful illustrations and the worlds that they present. The aim is to inspire the attendees to experience books and reading from a fresh, participatory and multidisciplinary perspective. In the workshop, the class is split in two, with half taking part in the literary art workshop and the other half in the art workshop, and then vice versa. This way, everyone gets to work with both words and images. The workshop is held in Finnish and lasts 1.5 hours in total. You can register for the workshops at kultus.hel.fi . Matka käärmejunassa literary art session In the Matka käärmejunassa (‘Journey on the Snake Train’) session, we explore Silja Sillanpää and Pasi Pitkänen’s book Ouroboros, perform some literary art exercises and solve riddles. During the session, we think about matters such as what sort of equipment the pupils would take with them on an adventure, look for our own snake friends, and write a short travelogue. Escape room style activities punctuate the session and encourage pupils to participate. Sateenkaarikäärme visual art session In the Sateenkaarikäärme (‘Rainbow Snake’) art session, we examine the snake characters in Pasi Pitkänen’s illustrations, try our hand at drawing different scales, and work together to create a large rainbow snake, piece by piece. During this session, Pasi Pitkänen’s illustrations serve as the main source of inspiration, and we observe them to help us practise drawing the fascinating scales of snakes. Over the course of weeks, the pupils’ pastel crayon drawings are assembled into the shape of a rainbow snake, which is displayed as a collaborative artwork as part of an exhibition in the lobby of Vuosaari House.