A small pause in the heart of Oulu’s happiness.
Poet Suvi Autto interprets the essence of Oulu’s happiness as part of the Abstract Sensory Journey, an experiential art concept created by Original Sokos Hotel Arina and KaikuArt. When people in Oulu were asked what makes them happy, moments of pause emerged again and again. Breaks in the middle of everyday life. Moments in which the mind can rest and the body can calm down – without demands, without hurry.
Happiness in Oulu through the eyes of poet Suvi Autto
“Perhaps happiness shimmers like light.
If it were a whole and solid block, no one could grasp it.
It would be too large, because happiness truly is a vast and significant feeling.
Despite its magnitude, the best thing about happiness is that it can arise from even the smallest of things.
I couldn’t say that the sun itself is happiness, because too much closeness burns and destroys. The sun needs space, the right distances, good fortune and other celestial bodies to function in the best possible way.
But what if I am walking in the forest and see sunlight between the trees?
Might I feel happiness then – something that is, in some way, connected to the sun?
Warmth? Relief?
Someone else might find happiness in a dim forest landscape and shy away from the sudden brightness that peeks out from behind a cloud.
Yet there would be no dimness without the sun.
‘I was so lucky!’
It suggests that chance had something to do with it.
Most people don’t assume by default that they are lucky. Happiness is often a lovely surprise.
And surprisingly, some things bring happiness again and again.
Like the sun, which surprises me every year anew and anew, but it never does so alone.
So is the sun also just a part of happiness?”
Poet Suvi Autto
Suvi Autto is an artist and poet whose work emphasizes sensitivity, observation, and giving space to experience. In the “A moment to Breathe” Point she opens a moment for pause and recovery as part of the Abstract Sensory Journey.
Learn more on Instagram: @sivullisena
How to experience the Abstract Sensory Journey
The Abstract Sensory Journey is an art experience created for Original Sokos Hotel Arina, consisting of seven sensory points located throughout the hotel. Each point interprets Oulu’s happiness from its own perspective – visually, verbally, and experientially.
The Abstract Sensory Journey can be explored independently between 11:00 and 20:00. You can pick up the Sensory Journey materials at the hotel reception.
Note! One of the sensory points is the art hotel room “Ode to Maritime Oulu”. It is included in the Sensory Journey during Open House hours every other Sunday in 2026 from 16:00 to 18:00.
