Junibacken celebrates Moomin’s 70th birthday with an exhibition and theatre!

Junibacken’s new major exhibition is Moomin at Junibacken. The theatre performanceAnd Then What Happened? can be seen every day in the exhibition area, based on Tove Jansson’s classic book: The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My.

“A Moomin exhibition at Junibacken is a wonderful way to start the jubilee year 2015, when the Moomins have their 70th birthday! The scenographers at Junibacken present the Moomin world in an extremely successful manner, and they have struck a perfect balance between the dark and light sides of Tove’s stories. I hope that the intimate format of the puppet theatre and its interaction with the animated illustrations projected onto the walls lead the visitors to experience that they have been transported right into the middle of Tove’s classic book from 1952. I’m looking forward to seeing what the children think!” says Sophia Jansson, niece of Tove Jansson and artistic director at Moomin Characters.

“It’s a special feeling to open an exhibition based on well-known and well-loved classic works of a truly great artist. We hope that a new generation of Moomin lovers will play, discover, be inspired to read, and just have fun in the exhibition during the two years that it’s here,” says Kristina Axen Olin, Chair of the Board at Junibacken.

The Exhibition

Visiting the exhibition is like visiting Moominvalley itself, where you can meet many of its inhabitants. The forest with the winding path seen in The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My is here, where you can pick beautiful red fruit and creep around among the trees. The carousel from Who Will Comfort Toffle? lies just beside, inviting you to take a ride before going on to the campfire, where you can join Moomin, Sniff and Snufkin and help them toast pancakes. You can direct your own play using shadow puppets in the floating theatre. Climb up the huge mountain, and swoosh down on a fallen tree. You can go fishing and listen to the rhythm of the waves in the small bathing hut, then watch the stars and consider the mysteries of the universe in the observatory. After such an adventure, it’s probably a good idea to visit the comforting Moomin House in the centre of the exhibition: a house of crazy, where you could do whatever you liked without a care for the morrow. Sometimes, it is true, disturbing and terrible things happened here, but at least no-one ever got bored (and this was the best thing about the house). – from Finn Family Moomintroll.

The exhibition has been created by scenographers Ola Hultén, Pelle Magnestam and Håkan Sanchis.

The Performance

You can meet Moomin, Little My and the Mymble every day in the puppet show And Then What Happened?, which will be presented during the exhibition. This is based on The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My from 1952, and is directed by Mikael Kallin. Andreas Braula is puppet maker and choreographer for the performance.

The exhibition marks the end in 2014 of the 100-year jubilee for Tove Jansson’s birth, and the beginning in 2015 of the 70-year jubilee of the first publication of the Moomin books. Moomin at Junibacken is based on the following books:

The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My (1952)

Who Will Comfort Toffle? (1960)

Finn Family Moomintroll (1948)

The Exploits of Moominpappa (1968)

Comet in Moominland (1946)

Moominsummer Madness (1954)

Moomin at Junibacken is presented in collaboration with Bulls Licensing, Rabén & Sjögren, and Arabia. The latter has developed a Moomin mug to mark the opening of the exhibition, with a design that will be sold only in Sweden. The mug will be sold exclusively in the Junibacken bookshop between 12 and 28 February. SEK 15 will be donated to the Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation for each mug sold.

Please contact Jenny Helldahl, Junibacken, for further information:

jenny@junibacken.se, tel.: +46 8 5872 3078, mobile: +46 73 704 1222