ITE Artist of the Year
ITE Artist of the Year 2025: Markku Sarastamo
ITE Recognition of the Year 2024: Hakkila Container Village Community in Vantaa
ITE Artist of the Year 2023: Alpo Koivumäki
ITE Artist of the Year 2022: “Junk Princess” Marjut Kauppinen.
ITE Artist of the Year 2021: Jori Tapio Kalliola.
ITE Artist of the Year 2021: Paula Huhtanen.
2025: Markku Sarastamo – whole life full of creativity
Starting in 2020, we have chosen the ITE artist of the year as a profile for self-taught artists. This year’s selection recognizes a multitalent from Hämeenlinna – ITE artist, fairy tale writer, storyteller, yogi, judoka, magician, inventor and Esperantist.
Markku Sarastamo (1948, Hämeenlinna) is a versatile talent, the personification of Self-Made Life, who has been guided by curiosity, desire to experiment and imagination since he was a little boy. Sarastamo is e.g. ITE artist, fairy tale writer, storyteller, yogi, judoka, magician, inventor and Esperantist.
The selection of Markku Sarastamo as the flag bearer of ITE art is a sign of appreciation for imagination and the many forms of creativity. At the same time, we honor Markku Sarastamo’s decades-long artistic career. Sarastamo was in the ITE art exhibitions for the first time in 2001 at the Helsinki Art Museum’s Meilahti exhibition.
In recent years, Markku Sarastamo has combined several areas of his art under the Karbujo–Hiilimaa entity. The fantastic and fairy-tale world of Karbujo comprises a narrative trilogy and an ever-expanding visual world, which is enriched not only by sculptures, but also by incredibly detailed and imaginatively flexible digital illustrations.
“I have been writing, drawing and dreaming about this story for about 25 years. Its starting point is probably the adventure books of my boyhood years and my hobbies with mechanics and electronics,” says Markku Sarastamo about the birth of the Karbujo fantasyland. The word comes from Esperanto “Karbo” coal and “Ujo” container or earth. That is, Hiilimaa, which is a volcanic region with its vulgar escape cavities and canals, in which a new type of human life is partly built.
As an ITE artist, Markku Sarastamo has been presented in exhibitions as a creator of special quality mechanical works, imaginative sculptures and elaborate drawings depicting the fairy tale world of Karbujo.
Sarastamo’s fantasy book for both children and adults The Countess and her amazing life can be read in both Finnish and Esperanto on his website.
Welcome to get to know the ITE artist of the year 2025
ITE artist Markku Sarastamo’s year 2025 opens in his hometown Hämeenlinna in the role of a magician. Later in the year, his art will be seen in two exhibitions, in the summer in Hyvinkää and in the fall in Rauma.
HÄMEENLINNA
Time: 31.1.2025
Address: Kulttuurikeskus ARX, Viipurintie 4, 13200 Hämeenlinna
In Hämeenlinna, Markku Sarastamo performs and demonstrates magic tricks at Kulttuurikeskus ARX, as part of the city’s Arts Winter Night event. Markku is also involved in the Taikapussi-ARXantai video material aimed at families with children, which will be published on February 1, 2025.
HYVINKÄÄ, MIDDLE OF NOWHERE ART PARK
Time: 25.6.–7.9.2025 (open Wed.–Fri. 2–7 p.m., Sat–Sun 12–6 p.m.)
Address: Middle of Nowhere, Koskenmaantie 187, Hyvinkää
In the joint exhibition of the Middle of Nowhere art park, Markku Sarastamo’s exhibition Satumaa Karbujo is in the interior of the park’s main building.
RAUMA, ART HOUSE RAUMARS
Time: 3.10.–25.10.2025 (open Tue–Sat)
Address: Taidetalo RaumArs, Alfredinkatu 3, Rauma
In October, Markku Sarastamo’s solo exhibition Karbujo – a land that doesn’t exist, will be held in Rauma, in RaumArs art house. The colorful drawings of the exhibition tell about the imaginary land of Karbujo, located by the sea in jungle-like regions. The exhibition will also include sculptural art as well as written and photographic material. During the exhibition, Sarastamo works as a resident artist and is there to meet the public during opening hours. There will also be work demonstrations, magic tricks of the week and a presentation on obstacles to creativity.
2024: Hakkila Container Villages Community in Vantaa
Since 2020, the Maaseudun Sivistysliitto has chosen the ITE Artist of the Year to bring out the voice and perspectives of self-taught artists. In 2024, the choice is aimed at an entire community whose activities show the multi-colored spectrum and powerful lushness of Self-Made Life. In Hakkila’s container village, a lively urban village activity is flourishing, bringing together artists, craftsmen and entrepreneurs.
In Vantaa’s Hakkila, behind a large industrial area, you can find the wonderful world of sea containers and barracks. There prevails the spirit of the village community and an uncensored atmosphere of freedom. “Hakkila is a place where you have the opportunity to take life into your own hands,” says Santeri Tuovila, one of the souls of the community.
As a physical environment, Hakkila’s container village is a maze-like network of colorful sea containers and barracks towering over them. The comminity is managed by Suomen Kotteria Oy, led by Pentti Kotiaho, which rents premises to bands, artists, craftsmen, hobbyists, small entrepreneurs and for storage. There are about 200 tenants in the area. Hakkila lives from six in the morning to two in the morning as a place for work, creativity and hobbies.
2023: Alpo Koivumäki and his splendid Alpo’s Savannah
The ITE Artist of the Year 2023 is Alpo Koivumäki from Kauhajoki, Western Finland. Koivumäki is a beloved and respected classic of ITE art, an internationally renowned author. His art has been exhibited in numerous exhibitions in Finland and abroad.
Koivumäki has created the sculpture park Alpo’s Savannah for exotic animals in his home village. As part of the Arts Trail, the park attracts a large number of tourists during the summer season.
The Association for Rural Education and Culture chose the ITE Artist of the Year for the fourth time. With the selection of Koivumäki, MSL also highlights the importance of the artist’s background groups and the communities around him. With the help of a network of friends, it has become possible for the artist to participate in trips and exhibitions abroad. The voluntary work of the background teams, the acquisition of funding for the renovation of the art environment, as well as professional communication and the maintenance of networks are also of enormous importance.
2022: Junk princess Marjut Kauppinen, “If it’s broken, it can be mended”
The 2022 ITE artist is Junk princess, Marjut Kauppinen, from Lapinlahti in Northern Savo. By selecting Kauppinen, the Association for Rural Culture and Education draws attention to the roots of ITE art, Kauppinen’s holistic lifestyle, her philosophy of recycling and the art environment that fills her garden.
Junk princess’s garden is teeming with sculptures made of recycled materials, collages, mosaic art, acrylic paintings, signs and sparkling objects. In summer, the garden is also lush with flowers and herbs, and in the stillness of winter it is time to create new works.
Junk princess makes almost all of her art from recycled materials. Her motto is “if it’s broken, it can be mended”: any piece of junk or scrap material can be transformed to give it a new lease of life.
Being self-sufficient and able to create things with her hands is Kauppinen’s driving force. Kauppinen and her husband keep sheep, dogs and chickens, and they also have a kitchen garden and collect food from the forest. She also runs recreational workshops for elderly people three days a week.
An elderly lady saw Kauppinen’s work made of recycled material years ago and said “well, I think you’re a veritable junk princess”, and the epithet stuck.
Kauppinen’s year as ITE artist will culminate at the Old Kuopio Museum in summer 2022 with an exhibition of her works. The exhibition is produced by the Kuopio Cultural History Museum in collaboration with the Association for Rural Culture and Education.
You can find an introduction to Junk princess on our website and on YouTube, as well as on the Finna.fi search service from 25 January 2022. Junk princess posts regularly on Facebook and on Instagram.
2021: Jori Tapio Kalliola – sculptor of wooden heads
The Association for Rural Culture and Education has named Jori Tapio Kalliola the 2021 ITE Artist of the Year. He is a Rauma-born self-taught artist and musician who now lives in Hanko.
Jori Tapio Kalliola’s works are commentaries on the current state of the world and life in general. They take aim at the power structures of society, politics, religion and economics, as well as greed and the pursuit of power, but are tinged with a gentle sense of humour.
Kalliola started painting when he was young, but then music took over and he spent years touring the world with his band. Kalliola has become known as a musician and the frontman of various bands and is still the lead singer of Jori Otsa & Mah’Orkka. Jori Tapio Kalliola does not have a formal arts education and is also a self-taught musician, singer and lyricist.
Kalliola has lived in Hanko since 2014, at which point sculpting became his preferred form of expression. He finds sculpting so fascinating that he creates statues almost every day, and his workshop is filled with wooden sculptures and reliefs. Kalliola uses materials abandoned by other people to create his frightening wooden heads. The materials used in his sculptures include bits of logs, dismantled railway parts and scrap metal.
2020: Paula Huhtanen – promoter of ‘joyism’
Paula Huhtanen was born in Lapland but now lives in the village of Sarkola in Nokia. In 2020, she became the first ITE Artist of the Year. This allowed her to highlight the perspective of artists in a number of events, online discussions and media interviews.
Huhtanen promotes ‘joyism’ in her art, spreading the ideas of trust and optimism that erupt from her brilliantly colourful paintings and collages. Her artistic expression has also found a canvas on unique objects and accessories, such as a piece of furniture, a dish, a shoe and a garment.
Paula Huhtanen started her exhibition tour to mark the nomination in 2019 at the Helsinki Christmas Market, but the actual celebrations started with a television interview at the Ethnogala at Tavastia Club. Her summer was occupied with a solo exhibition, Ilo ylimillään (‘Full of joy’), and work as a village artist in Ilomantsi. Huhtanen’s works were also displayed at the ITE hirveetä! summer exhibition in Parkano, the ITE bear exhibition in Savonlinna Provincial Museum and the Makkaragalleria in Helsinki. Paula Huhtanen sent her work Kämmenellä (‘In the palm’) to the President of Finland, Mr Sauli Niinistö, and his wife, Mrs Jenni Haukio. The hand-shaped work crystallises the challenge of avoiding physical contact as a result of the pandemic but offers consolation by reminding us that art always offers opportunities for us to come together.
Paula Huhtanen has continued to promote opportunities for other ITE artists to exhibit their works even after her time as the ITE Artist of the Year.
