Leandro Erlich in Amos Rex

Last week, there was a discussion about the fine manners of young people when schoolchildren made noise and sabotaged the performance during a visit to the ballet. This Amos Rex exhibition is guaranteed to have a great time for upper-class students as well. And in fact, there were a lot of school groups at the exhibition at noon on Friday

Read this article in Finnish here

THE CLOUD (2018–2022): Ultra-clear glass digitally printed with ceramic ink, wooden case, LED lights. Leandro Erlich Studio, Galleria Continua

On the surface, the exhibition is like the Funhouse of the Linnanmäki amusement park, a space where mirrors distorted reality and the stairs move under your feet. So there is quite a lot of surface in the exhibition, in some places it goes deeper. In any case, in these warlike and restless times, it was exceptional to visit a place where almost everyone was smiling, laughing and of course also taking a lot of photos.

When you enter the exhibition, the first thing you notice is how the floor, consisting of square wooden posts, limps comfortably when walking. The opening work is one of Erlich's best-known works, "The Cloud". As with many other works in the exhibition, he has made several versions of this.

An interesting, and perhaps more profound, work was School Class. The hazy, abandoned school classroom with its transparent human figures is like a cinematic, perhaps horror-like, reminiscence of childhood.

CLASSROOM (2017/2025): Wood, glass, school furniture and supplies, curtains. Leandro Erlich Studio

You also have to think about your own comfort distance from other people. The exhibition's brochure describes how lifts are spaces where socially awkward situations arise. We are close to each other and have to recognize the other's presence or try to avoid it. This is certainly true, and the elevator is probably one of the most used worlds in movies and commercials. In Erlich's elevator, too, at least from a Finnish point of view, you got awkwardly close to your fellow humans, even though this time they were very smiling. Or maybe that's why the situation can be awkward.

ELEVATOR MAZE. 2011. Leandro Erlich Studio

"Bâtiment" (2004/2025) was first made in Paris. Erlich has since recycled the work. The starting point is a local building. This time, the model is the Art Nouveau houses in Katajanokka. As is often the case in an artist's works, a work requires a viewer to function. At the same time, it constantly changes as the viewers settle down on a platform from which the figure is projected onto the wall.

BÂTIMENT (2004/2025)

"Global Express" takes the viewer through New York, Tokyo and Paris. In the works "El Avion" and "Night Light", we fly through the sky, although only standing in front of the work in the exhibition hall. For some reason, this work was photographed especially by older exhibition visitors. There is clearly something interesting about them.

EL AVIÓN (2011). Metal structure, fibreglass reinforced resin, video animation. Leandro Erlich Studio, Galleria Continua

NIGHT FLIGHT (2015). Metal structure, fibreglass resin, video animation. Leandro Erlich Studio, Galleria Continua

The exhibition leaflet contains an interview with Anastasia Isakova's Erlich. The exhibition is curated by Anastasia Isakova and Kai Kartio, the former director of Amos Rex.

Photographs from the exhibition by the author, 11/14/2025

Amos Rex webpage

Interview with Leandro Erlich - The Building, 2023 at Liberty Science Center.

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Leandro Erlich's background and art are related to illusion, questioning perception and architectural playfulness. Erlich was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1973. His international breakthrough came at the Venice Biennale in 2001 with his work "Swimming Pool". His works have been exhibited at the Tate Modern in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, among others. Erlich's art creates uncertain and unreal spaces where the everyday environment becomes strange and dreamlike. He has often been called the architect of uncertainty. Erlich is interested in illusion primarily as a means of questioning reality. He strives to create spaces that look familiar but offer something completely different. His works are often highly interactive, and the viewer becomes an integral part of the work. According to Erlich, a work is not finished until the viewer is involved and actively experiences it, which gives the work its own meaning.

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The Amos Rex art museum opened to the public on August 30, 2018. It was preceded by The Amos Anderson Art Museum, opened on Yrjönkatu in 1965. Amos Anderson (1878–1961), was renowned newspaper publisher, businessman, and patron of the arts.

Konstsamfundet decided to locate the new museum in the protected Lasipalatsi (Glass Palace) building and its square, known as a landmark in Helsinki. The project was carried out between 2015 and 2018.

The museum was designed by the architectural firm JKMM Architects (with Asmo Jaaksi as the lead designer). The museum's extensive, 2,200 square metre exhibition spaces were primarily constructed underground, beneath the former Lasipalatsi Square (now Amos Rex Square). This solution made it possible to preserve the protected Lasipalatsi building and utilise the square creatively.

A key architectural element is the large, round skylights or light wells that rise to the surface of Lasipalatsi Square, forming a rolling, undulating landscape. These mounds connect the underground museum to the urban space above and bring natural light into the museum. The functionalist Lasipalatsi, completed in 1936, was fully renovated. The Bio Rex cinema is part of this complex and serves also as the museum's main lecture hall.

Museum courtyard and floor plan. Light well photographed from inside the museum