This summer, Ruisrock’s art program blossoms under the theme “Let All Flowers Bloom.” The theme flows throughout the entire festival area in its colors, shapes, and stories, reminding us that growth, change, and diversity belong to everyone.
The artworks explore identity, connection, and what it feels like to be part of the festival’s flow. The program includes both sensitivity and strength, playfulness and depth. Each piece expresses, in its own unique way, what it means to truly flourish.
Butterflies in the Stomach
Through metamorphosis, a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Familiar growing pains and the search for one’s identity come to life in Apila Pepita Kaivo-oja’s colorful spatial art installation. Apila’s background as a comic artist is reflected in the interplay of text and image, where the story flows forward through the space itself.
The butterfly serves as a metaphor for the experience of being transgender, where transformation allows the true self to emerge from its shell. The texts reflect the experiences of many queer people, further emphasized through the use of physical mirrors. The artwork invites visitors to sit, walk, observe, and become part of the piece.
Apila Pepita Kaivo-oja is a multidisciplinary artist originally from Northern Savonia, now working in Helsinki. Apila’s colorful artistic expression can be seen in comics, book illustrations, animation, and tattoos.
Halmesmaax3
The Under the Burning Sun art area invites visitors to pause in the middle of the festival. It creates a sheltered space from the sun, offering a chance to rest and recharge during the day.
The artwork reflects the present moment, where the world can feel overwhelming and uncertain. At the same time, it highlights the possibility of change: even difficult situations can give rise to something new and more sustainable. Burning Sun serves as an environment for calming down and temporarily stepping away from the rush of the festival.
Ruisrock brings people together through music, shared experiences, and community. From these encounters come meaningful moments that strengthen our connection to one another and to the world around us.
Change is built gradually, together.
Toivo the Cat x Ruisrock
Printmaker Jone Mutka and visual artist Johanna Sinkkonen are bringing the beloved TOIVO THE CAT, which charmed visitors on Turku’s summer street last year, into the unique festival atmosphere of Ruisrock.
This time, TOIVO arrives in true festival spirit, dressed in a striking rock-inspired outfit and ready to spread joy, color, and a sense of community to all visitors. Built from recycled materials, the interactive artwork evolves together with festivalgoers: anyone who wishes can leave their own mark by writing or drawing their hopes on a cat-shaped plywood tile during the Lucky Tile workshops.
These individual wishes are then attached to the sculpture, gradually forming TOIVO THE CAT’s fur layer by layer, thought by thought. The final result becomes a one-of-a-kind communal artwork shaped by this summer’s festival visitors, where every participant becomes part of the whole.
One-hour workshops will take place next to TOIVO THE CAT every festival day at 4 PM and 6 PM, offering a moment to pause, create, and share hope in the middle of the festival buzz.
On top of everything else, TOIVO THE CAT also serves as the perfect meeting point and visual landmark, a place where friends can find each other and where the best festival memories of the summer are captured in photos.
Blooming Potatoes
Noora Ketolainen’s artwork Blooming Potatoes was inspired by the Finnish saying, “It may not be a rose, but potatoes bloom too.” The piece offers a new perspective on the humble yet meaningful potato, an essential ingredient in Finnish food culture, reminding us that there is beauty even in ordinary things.
In the artwork, Ruisrock’s diverse festival crowd is represented in the form of potatoes. The “festival soil” features different kinds of visitors, including couples, solo attendees, groups of friends, and families. Together, the work highlights both the diversity and sense of community among festivalgoers.
Noora Ketolainen is an illustrator, graphic designer, and comic artist originally from North Karelia, now based in Helsinki. Her illustrations can be found in books, environmentally themed comics, board games, and even honey jars. She works both digitally and with gouache paints, combining themes of nature, humor, and a gentle visual expression in her art.
We just got here
We Just Got Here captures the feeling of finally getting your festival wristband and realizing that the whole experience is still ahead of you. The flow of the crowd carries everyone toward their own destination, while the flower-headed masses are filled with different people, moods, and energies, each unique in their own way, yet still together. The artwork celebrates the freedom, sense of community, and self-expression that festivals make possible.
The colorful, comic-inspired world is built from bold shades, surreal details, and a playful aesthetic. Within the rich visual landscape, visitors can spot familiar moments and characters from a festival day.
Pinja Salmi is a visual artist and graphic designer from Turku whose artistic style combines bright colors, surrealism, playfulness, and comic-inspired imagery.
Peace, Love, Unity & Ruisrock
The artwork combines the floral theme with the iconic smiley face symbol associated with 1990s rave culture. The smiley represents joy and celebrating together, but also the PLUR philosophy: Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect. The idea of respecting and accepting everyone has been central both to early rave culture and to festivals today.
The smiley moves among flowers featuring subtle folkloric influences. The piece is a tribute both to the spirit of love and hippie culture present during Ruisrock’s early years and to rave culture, which has offered people connection and comfort even during difficult times. The artwork celebrates human connection through music and reminds us of the importance of joy.
Aino Salonen, also known as “Salamavaltikka,” is an illustrator and visual designer based in Helsinki whose work has been featured at festivals across Finland. Her art combines humor with a distinctive floral universe.
Metamorphosis
The artwork Metamorphosis explores the theme “Let All Flowers Bloom” through transformation and the cycle of nature. It is built as a visual series where flowers, growth, and transformation exist side by side: from seed to flower, caterpillar to butterfly, morning to night, and life to death.
The visual style of the piece reflects the artist’s background as a tattoo artist. Soft and organic floral forms are combined with graphic and tribal-inspired aesthetics. The artwork challenges the contrast between hardness and softness, showing how vulnerability and strength can exist at the same time.
Saara Obele works as an illustrator, tattoo artist, and pattern designer. Her art combines different styles, and this work especially highlights the fusion of tattoo aesthetics and pattern-based design thinking.
Art Bins
The art bins that delighted visitors along the art alley last year will return to Ruisrock again this summer. The works were created by fine arts students from the Turku University of Applied Sciences Arts Academy, and the pieces can be admired in the Beach Area.
Lumi Vuorilehto, Liisi Sievänen, and Ronja Sinisalo wanted to make the bins just as playful as the artworks surrounding them. They drew inspiration from the plants and flowers of Ruissalo, their shapes and colors. In their work, the flowers and plants became unique characters curiously observing festival visitors.
The collaborative piece by Roosa Koskinen, Mila Sievänen, Juho Haanperä, Saimi Saviaro, and Catrina Waselius is titled Open Mouth. The artwork combines trash and beauty while giving a voice to forgotten and marginalized things. In the piece, the mouth becomes a tool of expression that does not censor, but instead allows all thoughts and ideas to emerge freely. The artwork reflects the theme of the art program by embracing every kind of growth, even growth that rises from chaos and waste.
Love, Friendship and Joy – Photos from Ruisrock, 1970–1978
Welcome on a journey back to the early years of Ruisrock! Located in the Ranta VIP area, this photography exhibition brings together moments from the festival’s very first decade, beginning with the first-ever Ruisrock in 1970. Through these photographs, stories of friendship, love, and shared joy come to life.
Ruisrock exists to bring more joy and happiness into the world. The exhibition celebrates the moments that make the festival more than just music. The images capture the true heart of the festival: the feeling of excitement, freedom, and togetherness that makes Ruisrock uniquely magical.
The exhibition is displayed in the Ranta VIP area and will continue to delight visitors even after the festival ends. The photographs will remain on view in Ruissalo until the end of July.