Before attending the Moomins’ Sea Adventures and Tove and the Sea exhibits at the National Nordic Museum, I likened it to the Mona Lisa’s voyage to the US in 1963. “This presentation marks the first time these exhibitions from the Moomin Museum in Tampere, Finland, have ever traveled across the Atlantic,” states the museum’s website. And what a romantic idea that is, considering the exhibit’s theme of how the sea shaped both the fictional world of the Moomins and the life of Tove Jansson. I envisioned original illustrations, paintings, miniatures, and Atelier Fauni dolls being loaded into wooden shipping containers and then packed onto a large boat, to then travel across the ocean—a scene straight out of her novel Moominpappa at Sea.
Author, illustrator, and painter Tove Jansson created entire worlds in tiny packages, from charming comic strips to whimsical pocket-sized novels, often surrounding the whimsical world of Moominvalley. If you are unfamiliar with the Moomin trolls, they are a family of hippo-shaped creatures that go on adventures and get into mischief with their friends Little My, Sniff, Snufkin, Snorkmaiden, and more. Since they were introduced by Jansson in 1945, the Moomins have been adapted into numerous television series, video games, and theme parks.
Greeted by a large cardboard cutout of Moomintroll, I stepped into the Nordic Museum gallery enthusiastically, as if jumping off a dock into the Norwegian Sea. The walls were painted a deep, dark blue. Mini rowboats and rock-shaped beanbags were splayed across the floor. A model lighthouse kissed the gallery’s ceiling with a working light shining in a spiral around the exhibit. I recently visited the Seattle Children’s Museum with my 1-year-old nephew, and this setup felt somewhat familiar: while I am sure this will be magical to a tiny child, it was underwhelming for an adult who expected an art exhibit.
Surrounding the play island were unframed prints of illustrations and passages from Jansson’s Moomin novels, which were specified as “digigraphies,” a term trademarked by Epson, referring to a high-quality print of original artwork done using an inkjet printer. While the prints and text are a charming introduction to the Moomin-verse, they were ultimately just pages from the books I’d already read, but blown up and printed on fancy paper. Where was the original artwork and memorabilia?
“When Tove Jansson passed away,” the museum’s director of marketing, Marney Freeland, explained to me, “she donated her original artwork and illustrations to the city of Tampere, with the condition that they would remain in Finland and not travel.” The Moomin Museum created these digigraphies as a solution to share Jansson’s work while honoring her wishes—a completely understandable explanation, but something I wish I had known about before entering the exhibit.
The second room, dedicated to photographs and video footage of Tove Jansson and her partner, graphic artist Tuulikki Pietilä (known as Tooti), was geared more towards adult visitors, but still lacked unique images and content that would make this exhibit a destination for fans. Matted prints of childhood photos introduced the author and how her childhood adventures on the Gulf of Finland inspired the Moomin novels, followed by color photographs of Jansson’s remote life with Tooti.
The pair met in 1956 and quickly became neighbors in Helsinki as a way to pursue their relationship while still in the closet. However, Jansson’s mother’s unpredictable drop-in visits made this arrangement unsustainable (a tale as old as time!). As a solution, Jansson and Pietilä built a house on a tiny island on the Gulf of Finland where the couple spent their summers together. Video footage from these summer getaways was the highlight of the exhibit, most notably capturing Jansson at her freest, dancing wildly along the beach while staring lovingly at Pietilä.
Feeling slightly depressed as I left the exhibit, I was quickly drawn to the gift shop like a moth to a flame (or a Moomin to a stack of jam-smothered pancakes) for some retail therapy. I could have easily spent $5,000 on Moomin merchandise (I’m not exaggerating), but I left with a lovely map of Moominland to hang in my bedroom. I left behind plushies of all sizes, felted characters, T-shirts, hats, and a vast collection of mugs with obscure characters like Stinky, the Groke, and Ninny, the Invisible Child.
This is not to say that the exhibit is not worth your time or money: a little bit of Moomin is always better than no Moomin at all. But, given the way that this exhibit was advertised, it left me wanting more. It is a charming addition to the Nordic Museum, it’s a fun photo-op if you are planning to see the museum already, but the exhibit alone is probably not worth the $24 admission (or $20, if you buy your ticket online).
Whether you are new to the Moomin-verse or a fan, like me, left wanting more, here are some more ways that you can fill that Moomin-sized void in your heart.
WATCH:
Die Muminfamilie (The Moomin Family)
The Moomin
The Moominhouse
READ:
Notes from an Island
Moomin comics
Tove’s non-Moomin novels: The Summer Book, The True Deciever, and Fair Play.
LISTEN:
The Moomins by Graeme Miller and Steve Shill
PLAY:
Snufkin: Melody of Moomin Valley for Nintendo Switch
EAT:
Pancakes with Raspberry Jam
Swedish Gooey Cake
Scandinavian Treats from Byen Bakeri
