Residency exhibitions

21.02.2026—22.02.2026

12.00—18.00

Serlachius Residency

Free admission

Leena Ylä-Lyly: Shin

The residency exhibition features Leena Ylä-Lyly’s works Shin I-V, created in 2025, five pigment prints from the Takotsubo series printed on Japanese paper. The series deals with broken heart syndrome.

Shin I-V is based on the Japanese art of flower arrangement, ikebana, where the highest branch of the arrangement is called Shin. At the same time, the word also means mind and heart. A broken heart can heal, but it can also break again.

The exhibition also features textile works by Leena Ylä-Lyly’s aunt Ritva Ylä-Lyly (1929–2023), which are part of the Aesthetic Heritage project she is currently working on at the residency.

Lauri Linna: A wind cloth for ancestors

At the Serlachius Residency Lauri Linna will embroider a wind cloth for his Karelian ancestors, who lived in the village of Kolho in Vilppula after the war. A multilingual community of several hundred migrant workers settled in Kolho. In recent years, Linna has rediscovered his family’s Karelian past by relearning the Karelian language and practicing Karelian embroidery.
  
In Karelia, embroidered wind cloths were originally cloths tied to trees that were considered sacred. Since then, they have begun to be embroidered as mourning work on the graves of the deceased. These cloths, tied to wooden crosses in graves, may have been embroidered with decorations related to a person’s life. According to an old tradition, the cloth was allowed to break down with the wooden cross and it was not supposed to be replaced with a new one. The grief and remembrance had ended. Nowadays, of course, cloths and crosses are replaced, washed and maintained.
  
The wind cloths are related to the Karelian handicraft tradition. Käspaikka-towels are also embroidered cloths with a variety of things embroidered on them, such as holy people, trees of life, family stories. Perhaps the best-known of their patterns are the diverse birds.

Traditionally, the Käspaikk-towels have had many tasks in Karelian life. Lauri Linna ties the wind cloth he embroidered at the residence to Kolho near his great-grandparents’ old home, where it is allowed to disintegrate in the weather and nature.

Towel embroidery workshop Sat–Sun 21–22 Feb from noon to 4 pm.

As part of the exhibition, Lauri Linna will organise a workshop on Saturday 21 February and Sunday 22 February from 12 noon to 4 pm, where you can come and try Karelian embroidery. The workshop works non-stop, so you can arrive at any time you want. However, reserve an hour or two if you want to finish the embroidery.

Serlachius Residency is located at Kauppaneuvoksenkatu 3, Mänttä. Admission to the residency events is free. The events are carried out in Finnish language. Welcome!