суббота, 2 января 2016 г.

Tampere. Part III. Moominvalley

After the visit to the Spy Museum I was not in a very good mood. I expected better exposition and I didn't suppose its political orientation. I had to find something capable of raising my spirits.

According to the plan, I headed for the Moomin Valley museum. When I arrived at the place, where I supposed it was situated, I found nothing more than a gift shop, a sheet of paper telling the visitor that Moominvalley is relocated to another place and this funny creature:


The notice on the doors of the previous location of the museum assured me that it wouldn't take me more than five minutes of walking to get to the new place. Oh, it definitely wouldn't, if each building had a nameboard specifying the street and the house number. However, I haven't found a city, where each house is equipped with such useful features, yet. On the contrary, most of them usually do not reveal where they stay, and sort of laugh at me: "No, you won't find the place you're looking for!" In this case, it took me around a half an hour to get to the destination. Are you curious whether my goal deserved such efforts? Yup, it surely did!

Before we take a step inside, it's worth specifying that the world of Moomins was barely familiar to me at that moment: I haven't read any book, watched any cartoon, etc. In other words, I knew Tove Jansson's characters as the objects of mass culture, but didn't know any detail about them except their amusing appearance.

It was not allowed to take photos inside so all the pictures below (featuring the displays which impressed me the most) are what I memorized then and googled later.

The main exhibits are 2.5 meters high Moomin house and the Moomins' ship being prepared for departure. They're amazing! Such a considerate attitude towards the smallest details delights my eyes. By the way, the house was constructed in the late 1970s and one of its builders was Tove Jansson herself.



The house is not the only work of the famous Finnish novelist presented in the museum. Tove Jansson illustrated her books about Moomins herself, and some of these works are demonstrated in the Moominvalley. Besides them, there are hundreds of other miniatures created by numerous artists.

Isn't that yet another book torn into single pages and called a museum? Probably, it is so (omitting several large exhibits including mentioned above). I don't think that the museum walls help to perceive small pictures better. However, this "book" deserves much more attention than the previous one. Have a look at this "page":


Don't you find the composition interesting?

And what about this?


As for me, I'd like to visit a theater where the spectators watch the performance from the floating boats. That should be an exciting experience!

So... After the visit to the Moominvalley, I decided it's a pity that I disregarded this marvelous world in my childhood. But... it's never late to rectify a missed opportunity, even at the age of twenty-two :) Less than a year ago I discovered for myself the greatness of "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry reading it once again after ten years or so. I saw the things which cannot be noticed at the age of 10-12 when this book is usually read. Probably, reading in the original in French helped me a lot in that case. I don't think that I will learn Swedish in order to read stories about Moomins in non-translated versions. Hope that English or Russian would be enough for another literary discovery :)

By the way, do you know that there is a Moomin museum in Saint Petersburg? Also the temporary exhibition opened not long ago in Moscow. Have you visited any of them? Don't hesitate to share your impressions ;)

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