Satu Rautiainen – Garden of Empathy

Satu Rautiainen: Garden of Empathy on the facade of Forum Box 5.9-23.11.2025

The textile work Garden of Empathy will be spread across the facade of Forum Box from September to November 2025. The work is made with textile printing inks on canvas. In addition, appliqué and sewing were used in its implementation. My background is in art painting, but in recent years I have also studied various textile techniques as part of my artistic work. In my work, I reflect, among other things, on the interfaces between normality, play and madness. Garden of Empathy questions the roles of masculinity and femininity in Western culture.I don’t always understand why gender roles are needed in this day and age.

The work gently brings out presumed males and allows for masculine tenderness. The culture of toxic masculinity is present in this day and age, even if it doesn’t have to be. Perhaps the aesthetics of the work can reveal a new angle on normativity and tolerance.

Thank you for supporting my work: Kone Foundation.

Satu Rautiainen graduated from the Department of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in 2008, and since graduating has organized annual solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions both at home and abroad and since graduating has organized annual solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions both at home and abroad. Rautiainen works with painting and textile art and spacial ensembles formed from these. Rautiainens most recent solo exhibition was in 2023 at the Heinola Art Museum. Rautiainen’s works are included in several public art collections, such as the Finnish State Art Commission, Wihuri, Paulo Foundation, Kiasma, HAM Helsinki City Art Museum and EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art.