Murals in Kannelmäki

Helsinki Urban Art produced two murals in August 2025 to Klaneettitie 13 in Kannelmäki, Helsinki. The murals were painted by Dutch artist-duo VAAF and Portuguese Pantónio.

VAAF’s mural, painted around and over the building’s club room deals with themes of community and growth. The big, colorful work of VAAF artists Lotte Masker and Jonna Bo Lammers  also speaks for a better tomorrow.

In “Desejos”, the mural facing the train tracks, freely moving birds wrap around the buildings windows:

“Drawing birds has long ceased to be merely a representation of nature. Like Icarus, we seek to soar to the skies with the freedom of birds-they exist in nature, but also in human expression-in art, literature, and the imagination. We are once again in an era of birds-as-people: artists draw them, people look to them as a way to escape this reality, and humanity finds itself reflected in the figure of Icarus. In search of beauty or freedom, birds inspire us or else as sign of weariness. As a man and a product of these times, I too came here to draw them dancing and changing directions”.

The murals are a part of Helsinki Urban Art’s Helsinki Model project in the area. Thank you to the Embassy of Portugal in Finland, Camões-institute and Rúben Guedes Dias for collaboration.