Rainbow Path: Escape to Moominvalley

The Rainbow Path is a norm-critical path within the Escape to Moominvalley exhibition. It explores the diversity of gender and sexuality through the lens of Tove Jansson’s life and art. The Rainbow Path creates space for interpretation and personal reflection: how do spaces, objects, and cultural ideals shape identity, and what meanings might they carry from a queer perspective? The path does not offer ready-made answers but invites visitors to view the exhibition differently – with curiosity, empathy, and an appreciation for diversity. The Rainbow Path is available as a printed booklet at the museum. The booklet can be borrowed free of charge during the museum visit. The contents of the Rainbow Path are also available in text format on this website.

Queer history and LGBTQIA+ perspectives in the exhibition 

Welcome to the Architecture and Design Museum Helsinki! In this exhibition path booklet, we have gathered highlights related to rainbow history and queer perspectives. We wish you a rewarding visit to the exhibition!

Before the exhibition

The Rainbow Path at the museum introduces the exhibition Escape to Moominvalley through a norm-critical lens, focusing on the diversity of gender and sexuality. 

From a cultural perspective, gender and sexuality are shaped through interactions that take place in different spaces and environments. These encounters often involve objects and materials that people assign various meanings to. 

The Rainbow Path explores these themes both biographically, through the life of Tove Jansson; and interpretively, by reflecting on the meanings attached to the artworks and objects in the exhibition. The Rainbow Path focuses on the sections of the exhibition that pertain to Tove Jansson’s real life. 

Author of the Rainbow Path: 
Oscar Ortiz-Nieminen, educator and researcher. Since 2016, Ortiz-Nieminen has designed and implemented LGBTQIA+ content for various museums in Finland. 

In the exhibition

All Rainbow Path stops are marked on the exhibition map. In the exhibition space, they are marked with orange stickers. The stickers feature a symbol with a rainbow. 

You are free to move through the exhibition at your own pace and in any order. The signs in the exhibition spaces guide you through the different exhibition rooms. 

You can choose your first stop from the map!

1. Connecting passage 

Tove Jansson’s studio home was a large top floor corner apartment. She gained access to the space after World War II, and despite bomb damage, the apartment offered her a dream setting for combining work and life.

Years later Jansson’s life partner, graphic artist Tuulikki Pietilä, acquired her own apartment and studio in the same building. They could reach each other via a connecting passageway in the attic. This space can be seen as a metaphor for their relationship, which balanced independence and companionship. The passageway was both a route to one’s beloved and a shield from public scrutiny at a time when same-sex relationships were still criminalized (1894–1971) and widely condemned. 

2. Queer childhood

When reflecting on their childhoods, many adults who belong to sexual and gender minorities can recall feeling different – perhaps not having enjoyed playing with cars or wanting to wear princess dresses. For a child, being unlike their peers can lead to uncertainty and feelings of loneliness. Yet, there is a kind of superpower in nonconformity: it fuels imagination and encourages building a life that feels authentic.

In her memoir the Sculptor’s Daughter (1968), Tove Jansson describes growing up in an artist’s home, where the stimuli she received encouraged an open-minded approach to the world. She recounts a vivid childhood dream:

“Then I opened the bedroom window and climbed out onto the windowsill with the crow and the monkey Poppolino. Don’t be afraid! I said. And then we flew.”

3. Rococo canopy

One of the most striking interior elements in Tove Jansson’s atelier home was a Rococo-style canopy hanging above the bed. After the 1962 renovation, it ended up decorating the luxurious bedroom of ceramic artist Birger Kaipiainen.

Jansson and Kaipiainen studied at the Ateneum at the same time. In addition to artistic imagination and fantasy worlds, they also shared common ground having had relationships with both men and women during the course of their lives.

In mid-20th-century Helsinki, the circles of queer and Swedish-speaking cultural figures were small and close-knit. Among Finnish-Swedish women who loved women, the intimacy of their networks even shaped the language: “ghost” (spöken) was a coded term for lesbian, and the verb “att mymla” referred to sex between women. This insider vocabulary lives on in the Moomin stories, for example in the names of characters like the ghost and the Mymble (Mymlan).

4. Set design sketches

Tove Jansson’s play Moomintroll and the Comet premiered at the Svenska Teatern in 1949. Initially, the theatre’s board was hesitant, doubting the script’s suitability for children. The production was ultimately realized thanks to Jansson’s close friend, theatre director Vivica Bandler, who supported and directed the play.

A few years earlier, the two had shared a brief but intense romantic relationship. In a letter to a friend, Jansson wrote of her feelings for Bandler:

“You know very well that I consider, and will always consider, myself Atos’s wife. Still, it has happened – I’ve fallen head over heels in love with a woman. It feels so incredibly natural and genuine – and there’s nothing wrong with it. I feel only pride and immense happiness.” Atos (writer and politician Atos Wirtanen) was Jansson’s partner at the time.

Jansson’s close circle inspired several Moomin characters. The inseparable duo Thingumy and Bob, who speak their own language, are a reference to Tove and Vivica, while the contemplative Snufkin shares traits with Wirtanen.

5. Shadows of war

Wartime in Finland was exceptional in many ways, including in regard to sexual and gender norms. Men fought on the front lines, while women defended the home front. Many longed for closeness, and some found it for the first – and perhaps only – time with someone of the same gender. These encounters took place both in the privacy of homes and in the anonymity of city nights. For some the experience was so transformative that it fully reshaped their understanding of themselves for the rest of their lives.

Tove Jansson published her first Moomin book, The Moomins and the Great Flood, in 1945, just after the war ended and upon turning 30. The proximity to crisis is reflected in the book’s themes of natural disaster and displacement. The following year, Jansson fell in love with a woman for the first time. The post-war return to normalcy in Finland was harsh: the nuclear family was elevated as the moral cornerstone of the nation. Deviance was punished and pathologized. In the 1950s, more people were convicted for homosexual acts in Finland than ever before or since – most of them working-class men.

6. Tooti’s closet

A closet is a piece of furniture designed for storage, used to keep everyday items and valuables. It is a place of concealment and safety. In the interior design plan for the Klovharu cottage, there is a designated space for Tooti’s cabinet. “Tooti” was Tove Jansson’s nickname for her partner Tuulikki Pietilä.

In queer communities, the phrase “coming out of the closet” refers to the act of publicly sharing one’s sexual or gender identity. Coming out can mean telling close friends and family, or today, doing so visibly on social media. It has become a rite of passage; a way to reject heteronormativity and join one’s chosen community. Being “in the closet” is often associated with secrecy and shame, but it can also offer space for introspection and personal rebellion. Coming out may also involve risks, especially if the surrounding world is not ready to accept diversity.

During their lifetimes, the relationship between Jansson and Pietilä was often described as an open secret. Although many in Finland knew they were a couple, the social climate of the time meant the matter was rarely openly discussed.

7. A home of one’s own

Modern housing design in Finland has traditionally been based on the nuclear family: mother, father, and a few children. This ideal is reflected in room layouts, furnishings, and interior design.

Tove Jansson had the privilege of creating living spaces that reflected her own identity and catered to the needs of both an independent woman and a lesbian couple. Her sister-in-law and brother-in-law, architects Raili and Reima Pietilä, were involved in the renovation of Jansson’s studio home (1962) and in the design of the island cottage she shared with her partner Tuulikki Pietilä (1964). While the women lived separately in the city, the island cottage served as their shared retreat.

In addition to the typical spaces found in people’s homes, both Jansson’s studio home and the island cottage offered ample room for artistic work and crafting. The interior design did not emphasize the everyday needs of a family with children; instead, the studio home was the residence of an independent woman engaged in artistic work, and the island cottage reflected the interests and shared hobbies of the artist couple. Space was made for beloved furniture, art and decorative objects, books, and collections of cassette tapes and records.

After the exhibition

People shape their identities and relationships through spaces and objects. For LGBTQIA+ individuals, certain places or items may carry different meanings than they do for the majority population. Architectural and interior design choices offer both limitations and possibilities – they speak to the need for protection, the desire to connect, and the pursuit of self-expression.

Consider these questions in relation to your own life: 

• What kinds of spaces and places have shaped you most as a person? 
• What does your home’s interior and your belongings say about you and what matters to you? 
• What spaces or objects do you use differently than is typical or intended?  
• How well do you know Finnish queer history – what was life like before, and what is it like now? 

Explore Finnish LGBTQIA+ history further at the Friends of Queer History website

Sources and literature

Hagman, S. (2014). Seven Queer Brothers – Narratives of Forbidden Male Same-sex Desires from Modernizing Finland 1894–1971. Florence: European University Institute. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/32118
Jansson, T. (2014). Brev från Tove Jansson. Urval och kommentarer av Boel Westin & Helen Svensson. Helsinki: Schildts & Söderströms.
Jansson, T. (1969). Kuvanveistäjän tytär. Translated by Kristiina Kivivuori. Helsinki: WSOY.
Juvonen, T. (2002). Varjoelämää ja julkisia salaisuuksia. Tampere: Vastapaino.
Kalha, H. (2013). Birger Kaipiainen. Översättning: Emilia Siltavuori ja Robin Valtiala; translated by Liisa Laakso-Tammisto. Helsinki & Espoo: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura ja EMMA – Espoon modernin taiteen museo.
Karjalainen, T. (2013). Tove Jansson: Tee työtä ja rakasta. Helsinki: Tammi.
moomin.com. (n.d.). Moomin Official Website. Available at: https://www.moomin.com
Gorman-Murray, A. & Cook, M. (eds.) (2018). Queering the Interior. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Westin, B. (2008). Tove Jansson: Sanat, kuvat, elämä. Translated by Jaana Nikula. Helsinki: Schildts.