The exhibition World in a Box – Assemblages by Juhani Harri showcased the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection. Juhani Harri (1939–2003) was a pioneer of Finnish assemblage art. In his neo-realist works, everyday objects and natural materials are transformed and given new life.

The exhibition featured around 70 works. The core of the exhibition consisted of pieces from the Saastamoinen Foundation’s Art Collection and the deposit collection of the Pori Art Museum, supplemented by works from EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art’s collection and a few private collections. The exhibition spanned from Harri’s early works of the 1960s to pieces from the 2000s.

“Everything must be found.”

Juhani Harri (originally Juhani Sakari Wirtanen) was born into a clerical family in Vaasa. He initially planned to become an ornithologist but later became interested in art. In the early 1960s, Harri moved to Helsinki. At first, he considered pursuing ceramics but instead began his studies at the Free Art School.

In Helsinki, Harri was introduced to the avant-garde American Pop Art of the time, which depicted urban culture, as well as to the work of earlier artists such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. He was also intrigued by the art of the French Les Nouveaux Réalistes group, including artists like Arman, Spoerri, and Yves Klein. Neo-realism emerged as a reaction against informalism, which had rejected representational and geometric forms. To approach reality, artworks incorporated familiar everyday objects as they were. Harri’s assemblages, made from worn, used, and found objects, are examples of neo-realist practices in Finland at the time. He combined these objects with natural elements such as eggshells, tree leaves, and sand, and altered them through color or other methods to create transformed forms.

Harri did not deliberately go out to buy objects for his works; instead, he believed that “everything must be found; a sudden illumination, an aura, an atmosphere around something makes it significant.” For example, a broken violin no longer has meaning as a musical instrument—its meaning lies only in its form; it becomes abstracted, simplified. Harri was influenced by the ideas of American composer John Cage, particularly his approach to integrating art and life in creative work. Cage used sounds from everyday life—even silence—in a collage-like manner in his experimental compositions.

“My works are realistic. I really consider myself a realist. If there are butterflies and insects in them, then there are butterflies and insects. As Andy Warhol said, if you want to look for and find something in my work, it’s all on the surface of my work.”

Starting in 1964, Harri began constructing his compositions inside cabinets, which he enclosed with glass to create self-contained worlds. The cabinet became a spatial work—a theatrical space. The cabinets could be various boxes or the bottoms of suitcases. The exhibition’s title, World in a Suitcase, refers to Harri’s characteristic way of making art and to the travel theme that was important to him. Roads always fascinated him, as they bear traces of those who have passed before.