Since 2022, the visual identity of the Naantali Music Festival has been based on visual works of art, chosen every year based on an application round for professional artists. The round organised last autumn once again received a good number of submissions, several dozen, of which the jury chose the piece Taivaankansi (2023) by Turku-based visual artist Meri-Pauliina Sundén as the visual artwork for 2024.

Meri-Pauliina Sundén, who graduated as Master of Arts from the Aalto University in 2006, explains that the piece was inspired by the current situation in the world.

– It’s a statement on behalf of peace and the protection of nature. Music is a universal language with a message that is common to all cultures. I believe that through music we can send a message of peace to the world,” says Sundén.

The piece has been composed digitally on paper using elements painted with liquid watercolours and arranged in the form of a collage. It is a composition of different colours and shapes. Among other elements, it includes a green earth and a sky formed by a blue rainbow. There is a bird flying in the sky, symbolising peace, and a large sun, meaning love and bringing all the elements of the piece together.

– All humans exist under the same sky and that is why we have to take care of the world. Music can give us hope for the future,” says Sundén.

Sundén’s exhibition can be seen at Naantalin Taidehuone partly during the Music Festival, 11–30 June 2024.

Managing Director Suvi Innilä of the Naantali Music Festival is happy to see the festival facilitate dialogue between music and the visual arts.

– It’s great that this is already the third year in which we have a visual identity created in this way. In the summer’s concerts, everyone is free to make their own interpretation of the dialogue between music and the visual arts,” says Innilä.

The submitted works were evaluated and the choice was made by a jury comprising Suvi Innilä, Curator Heli Harni from the Helsinki Art Museum, Designer Miia Liesegang, who designed the logo of the Music Festival, and Head of Design Ville Isopahkala from the ad agency Duran Creative. Duran Creative is responsible for the final visual identity of the year and for creating its various applications on the basis of the artwork.