PROGRAM AND SCHEDULE
Floor Tape Workshop | Comic Centre
12:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Visitors will have the opportunity to decorate the floor surfaces around the Comic Centre.
Nunnukka Design | Valvesali Hall Lobby
12:00 PM – 9:45 PM
Nunnukka Design creates striking designer jewelry from recycled materials. The jewelry is handmade in Hailuoto. Their specialty is custom jewelry design. Payment can be made by card or MobilePay.
Be a Portrait Model! | Visual Artist Saara Holappa | Valvesali Hall Lobby
1:30 PM – 4:00 PM & 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Saara Holappa is a 31-year-old artist living in Oulu. She creates a variety of drawings and paintings using both traditional methods and digital techniques. Holappa has studied visual arts, comics, and graphic design, and has been drawing passionately since childhood. Drawing portraits quickly in a live setting is something Holappa finds both challenging and highly rewarding, especially when the model is happy with the result.
It takes about 10–15 minutes to draw a portrait. The price for a portrait is 10 €. Payment can be made in cash or via MobilePay.
Pop-up Animation Workshop for Families | The Culture Centre for Children and Youth | Video Workshop
3:00 PM – 6:30 PM
In the pop-up animation workshop at Valve’s video workshop, you’ll have the chance to briefly experience what it’s like to create stop-motion animations using traditional frame-by-frame animation techniques. You’ll also get information on how to join the animation hobby activities for children aged 7–12 at Valve.
Sydänbiitti | Rap/Pop Band | Valve’s Paljetin Stage
4:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Sydänbiitti is a three-member rap/pop band from Oulu, creating atmospheric music with lyrics that touch on both beautiful and darker aspects of life. Through their music, they aim to offer people strength to endure difficult moments in life.
Arts Night Comedy Show | Movie | Cinema Studio
4:00 PM – 5:10 PM
S, 69 min, Finnish subtitles, Free entry
Charles Chaplin: THE ADVENTURER (1917, USA)
A convict named Charlie crashes a fancy party and causes chaos all around him.
Buster Keaton: THE BLACKSMITH (1923, USA)
Buster is a blacksmith dedicated to his craft, but his obsession with details leads to chaos in the larger picture.
James W. Horne: LAUGHING GRAVY (1931, USA)
Stan and Ollie live as tenants. Their pet dog, Laughing Gravy, becomes the target of their landlord’s ire.
Red Chalk Painting | LUMA Centre | Kantti
4:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Join this magical workshop! Using red cabbage, we’ll create magical paper and explore how everyday materials can transform into vibrant colors. The workshop is especially designed for families with children but is open to everyone. Free entry – feel free to drop by anytime during the opening hours. Organized by the LUMA Centre of the University of Oulu.
Guided Exhibition Tour in the Galleries of Valve Block
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Welcome to join the guided exhibition tour in the galleries of the Valve Block on Oulu Arts’ Night, Thursday, August 14th, at 5 PM! During the tour, we will visit current exhibitions in the galleries of Valve as well as the exhibition spaces of the Oulu House of Visual Arts: Galleria 5, Pimento, and Arttila.
Valve Gallery | OMVF: Broken Edge
Valve Paljetti | Anna Sofia Vuorinen: In the Garden
Photo North – Northern Photography Centre Gallery | Anni Leppälä, Jorma Mylly, Ananya Tanttu & Aino Väänänen: Expectation
Photo North – Northern Photography Centre Lobby Gallery | Ronja Siitonen: Adoration Diary
Comic Gallery! | Jaana Suorsa: Me, the Skybinder – The Story of Reidar Särestöniemi
Pimento | Works from Arto Art Lending and Store Collection
Arttila | Works from Arto Art Lending and Store Collection
Galleria 5 | Elite Art Exhibition
World of Shadows – Non-stop Shadow Theatre Workshop | Theatre Akseli Klonk | Valvenäyttämö Stage
5 PM – 7 PM
Come and explore the play of light and shadow and try out shadow theatre techniques in this non-stop workshop organized by Akseli Klonk.
Fridge Magnet Workshop | Comics Center
5 PM – 9 PM
The Oulu Comics Center’s Fridge Magnet Workshop returns as a charity event from 5 PM to 9 PM. Throughout the evening, several comic artists will create custom fridge magnets based on your requests — you can even ask for your favorite poem to be included! Each magnet costs three euros, and all proceeds will be donated to a cause that will be announced later. The Turku Comics Shop’s Oulu branch at Valve will be open from 12 PM to 9 PM. Payment by card or cash.
Suzuki School Oktaavia | Guitar and Violin Group | Valve’s Paljetti Stage
5:15 PM – 5:45 PM
A charming group of guitarists and violinists from Suzuki School Oktaavia will enchant the audience on Valve’s Paljetti Stage.
My City – Premiere of the Media Art Masterclass | The Culture Centre for Children and Youth | Studio Cinema
6:00 PM – 6:20 PM
The premiere screening of a media art piece created by 13–15-year-old participants of the summer course organized by the Culture Centre for Children and Youth. Shown on 16mm film at Valve’s Studio Cinema, the work offers the audience a unique experience of what Oulu feels like through the eyes of young media art masters.
Beginnings of Peace | Northern Opera Company | Valvesali Hall
6:00 PM – 6:40 PM
“Something that needs time to grow stronger must not be touched.”
What do you do when there are barriers between people and the right words can’t be found? Told through a children’s book, saxophone, and kantele, this sensitive story takes you through difficult emotions to a place where friendship can grow.
Northern Opera Company presents an open dress rehearsal of this family music theatre performance at Oulu Night of the Arts. The event will be recorded, and seating is limited. Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Muusat at Valve | Valve’s Paljetti Stage
6 PM – 8 PM
In the traditional “Muusat Valveella” event of the Literary Art Festival Muusajuhlat, this year’s lineup features Sanna Vainio, Jessi Jokelainen, Jaana Suorsa, Matti Lasanen, and accordionist Pertti Haipola.
At 6 PM Sanna Vainio: Girl
Sanna Vainio’s Girl (Atena 2024) is a fierce breakup novel that asks how the closest person can become a stranger. “I’m not in love,” answers the man when Friida asks about the relationship with a young photographer. Behind them is a long-term relationship, a child at home, and everything is fine. But suspicion settles on Friida like a parasite, and neither can get the Girl out of their mind anymore. Jealousy and bitterness tear the couple apart and back together. What kinds of rites of passage are required to move forward? When must one stop leaning on the familiar shoulder? Does pain sometimes turn into phantom pain? This raw novel shows the entire lifecycle of a breakup—from disbelief to despair, rage to bursts of love, and finally a new balance. Interviewed by Pertti Rautiainen.
Producer and cultural jack-of-all-trades Sanna Vainio lives and works in Hailuoto. In writing, Vainio is interested in human incompleteness, vulnerability, and cracks. Girl is her debut novel.
At 6:30 PM Jessi Jokelainen: Femocracy
Jessi Jokelainen’s comic album Femocracy (Suuri Kurpitsa), published last year, deals with Finnish political history, present, and future especially from women’s perspectives in politics. What does socially influential womanhood look like in a state where women’s universal and equal voting rights were first implemented in the world? Femocracy persistently wades through appearance politics, society’s double standards, men’s unshakable power, and the multidimensional nature of womanhood. The narrator’s voice is that of a young female politician who has just entered parliament, learning to navigate the world of politics plagued by superficiality. Is politics still a place made for women? Interviewed by Taija Jyrkäs.
Jessi Jokelainen (b. 1996) is a writer from Oulu, Master of Philosophy, subject teacher, and member of parliament. Femocracy is her debut comic album.
At 7 PM Jaana Suorsa: I, Taivaanjaara – The Story of Reidar Särestöniemi
The newly published I, Taivaanjaara (Zum Teufel) is Jaana Suorsa’s comic book about Reidar Särestöniemi and the animal characters and symbolism in his world. Särestöniemi struggled with his homosexuality, felt like an outsider in the world, did not enjoy human form, and therefore identified with Lapland’s wild animals. He opposed the destruction of Lapland’s nature for industrial needs. Särestöniemi also feared the polar night of Lapland before he accepted it and began painting the colors of winter. Interviewed by comic art counselor Harri Filppa.
Jaana Suorsa (b. 1964) is a comic artist, children’s author, and cultural producer originally from Oulu and living in Akaa. She has participated in creating children’s culture in Oulu through comic and art education workshops and exhibitions related to comics and art history. Suorsa also performs as Aunt Kylli, drawing and telling her stories. Her best-known works include sarcastic pig albums, the first of which Life is Life – Tout est dans le cochon was published in 2004. An exhibition based on I, Taivaanjaara will be held at the Oulu Comics Center Gallery from August 1 to September 3.
At 7:30 PM Matti Lasanen: The Accordionist and the Carriage Ladies
Matti Lasanen’s work The Accordionist and the Carriage Ladies (2023) tells the stories of musician Pertti Haipola and carriage ladies Sylvi Hanhela and Pirjo Höyhtyä. The content is divided into four parts. The first part covers the 60-year versatile artistic career of well-known Oulu musician Pertti Haipola from childhood to the present day. The second and third parts contain the biographies of Sylvi Hanhela and Pirjo Höyhtyä, who worked as carriage ladies. The fourth part depicts the sewing work of two young women from Oulunsalo at the clothing factories in Borås. Pertti Haipola also appears with his accordion!
Matti Lasanen, an author from Oulu now retired, has previously published two non-fiction books about the local history and everyday life of Toppila and Hietasaari: At Toppila’s Kiln (2017) and Hietasaari, Vaakunakylä (2020).
Music and Psychoanalysis | Psychotherapy Foundation Monastery | Dance Hall 3
6:15 PM – 9 PM
The Psychotherapy Foundation Monastery participates in the Night of the Arts with a performance by psychoanalyst Jenni Fyrsten about psychoanalytic listening. The intention is to pause and listen to the soul and its resonance, music as the equivalent of psychoanalytic listening. In addition to a small theoretical section, the performance includes listening together to music samples. Alongside the performance, plenty of open discussion on the topic is encouraged.
Ken Scott: It All Started with My Mother | Film | Cinema Studio
6:30 PM – 8:15 PM
S, France 2025, 102 min, Finnish subtitles, Tickets €11
In 1963, Esther gave birth to Roland, the youngest in a large family. Roland was born with clubfoot. Against advice, the mother promised her child that he would still learn to walk like everyone else and live a happy life. From that moment on, Esther devoted herself entirely to fulfilling her promise.
Nova Ensemble | Persian Folk Music | Valve Paljetti Stage
8:15 PM – 9 PM
Nova Ensemble performs a warm-hearted collection of Persian folk music combining traditional melodies and modern arrangements. The concert offers a musical journey through Iran’s diverse cultural regions and celebrates multiculturalism through music.
Yasmine ry | Oulu Oriental Dance Association | Valve Paljetti Stage
9:15 PM – 9:45 PM
Yasmine ry offers skilled dance performances at Valve Paljetti. The program includes both oriental dance (raqs sharqi) and FCBD style (Fat Chance Belly Dance). The performance lasts about 30 minutes and is suitable for all ages.