The reception of Ateneum’s closing exhibition surprised the museum director – “It’s an incredible thing”

Ateneum manager Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff is amazed. The reception of the Gothic Modern exhibition, which opened in October last year, has exceeded all expectations.

The exhibition, which deals with the themes of death, suffering and sexuality in dark tones, has been very popular. By January 22, the exhibition had been seen by more than 224,000 visitors.

“The number of visitors has remained constant throughout the exhibition. We thought that at Christmas time it would be quiet, as it usually is, but even then there were a lot of people,” says von Bonsdorff, who also served as the main curator of the exhibition.

On weekends, the queues have stretched all the way to the street at best. In the Ateneum, it means that there are thousands of people inside, von Bonsdorff says.

Eero Järnefeltin last year’s art exhibition had more than 263,000 visitors. However, the Järnefelt exhibition was open for about a month longer than Gothic Modern.

At the Ateneum according to von Bonsdorff, there has never been an exhibition before where people would stop as intensely at each work.

“They don’t just walk through the halls and look at the works casually. They move in line, piece by piece, look closely and carefully.”

Von Bonsdorff believes that the exhibition has touched people in a rare way. According to him, the visitors have had intensive discussions and even become sensitive.

Something about the exhibition’s popularity is also said by the fact that it was made for it Gothic Modern 1875–1925: From Darkness to Light -a second edition of the exhibition book was already taken after the first two weeks.

“Absolutely incomprehensible. These days you might think that books don’t sell.”

Gothic Modern has also exceptionally reached the younger age groups. 18-25 year olds are eager to come here in larger numbers than usual, says von Bonsdorff.

“You can see the difference with your own eyes when you visit the showroom. Half of them are young.”

According to von Bonsdorff, the word about the exhibition started to spread among young people on their own channels, i.e. social media.

“They immediately went to make fun of the exhibition. You can’t come up with an advertising campaign like that by force, it wouldn’t go through,” he laughs.

At hand are the last moments to visit the exhibition, because it will be on display at the Ateneum for the last time on Sunday. After that, the exhibition continues its journey to Oslo and Vienna.

Von Bonsdorff believes that the last weekend will see a spike in visitors.

“Many have said that they want to see the exhibition one last time before it leaves. We’ll see what kind of queues there will be and what the final number of visitors will be.”