Text by Erika Benke
What happens if you invite an opera singer from London, an architect from Japan and a dancer from Serbia to spend three days and two nights together with members of a moose hunting group in northern Finland? Will they have meaningful conversations while staying under the same roof, cooking and eating together, perhaps going for a swim in Iijoki? Could such interactions among a random group of strangers help make the world a better place?
Architect Teemu Kurkela, member of the Akola Forum team, whose roots in Ii stretch back 500 years, has been dreaming about bringing here his friends from near and far ever since he started restoring Akola Manor in 2018.
A beautiful example of Gustavian architecture dating back to 1796, Akola Manor has been owned by Kurkela’s family for over 100 years.
With the restoration complete, Akola Manor is getting a new lease of life, hosting Akola Forum, an initiative aimed at reviving the local community.
What is Akola Forum?
Akola Forum is part of the cultural programme of Oulu2026.
It’s a series of events in 2025 and 2026 that aims to challenge the stereotype that Oulu and northern Finland are places that don’t appreciate art and culture, thus reflecting the essence of Oulu2026’s mission of delivering “cultural climate change”.
“Living in the sparsely populated Oulu region does not have to mean isolation or exclusion. Oulu European Capital of Culture 2026 is a chance to showcase what it means to spread creative and cultural opportunity beyond urban heartlands,” Oulu’s bid book explains.
Akola Forum aspires to make a direct contribution to implementing cultural climate change by bringing together ordinary local people and high-profile personalities from the world of culture to identify, explore and celebrate what really matters in life.
Assisted by a moderator, participants at Akola Forum events will attempt to define cultural climate change and they’ll discuss what culture can do to change the world for the better.
How exactly does Akola Forum work?
At each cross-cultural event, three participants from the Oulu region and three from across the world will spend three days and two nights at Akola Manor.
“Akola Forum will be a bubble, facilitating intimate meetings of minds between people whom we call ‘guardians of culture’, says Kurkela.
“There won’t be a set agenda: we envisage holistic discussions surrounding key challenges, such as climate change, sustainability, green transition and wellbeing, and the role of culture in meeting these challenges: whether culture is powerful enough to spearhead the push for change.”
Each Akola Forum event will be led by a high-profile Finnish cultural personality. A shortlist of possible leaders include dance artist and choreographer Tero Saarinen, violinist Eriikka Maalismaa, chef Jussi Kurkela, actor Jasper Pääkkönen, artist Anu Pentik and architect Teemu Kurkela.
Through their personal networks, Akola Forum members have compiled a list of high-profile cultural personalities that they have proposed to invite to Akola Forum events. The list features internationally-renowned figures from literature, architecture, music, design, business and visual arts.
At the end of each Akola Forum weekend, participants will share the results of their discussions with a 100-strong audience invited to the Annex: a former drying barn, or kuivuri, that’s been converted into a performance venue.
Kurkela says these events will be more than just delivering the participants’ message to a wider audience.
“If any of the guests wants to do a musical, dance or other cultural performance, they will be very welcome to take the stage. We’ll also invite local community arts groups to perform at these events,” says Kurkela.
Putting the concept into practice
The first Akola Forum test event took place on June 14, 2024.
If you are unable to view the embedded video, you can also find it here: https://youtu.be/HTd-wX2tKcE (opens in a new tab).
The day started with a lively discussion between people sitting on the floor in a wide circle. Guests Petri Sirviö from the Screaming Men’s Choir, author Jenni Räinä, calligraphy artist Pan Jianfeng and dancer Ella Posti exchanged views with members of the Akola Forum team, including violinist Eriikka Maalismaa, artistic director and tech entrepreneur Marko Ahtisaari, architect Teemu Kurkela and sustainability professional Thomas Jelley. Their conversation ranged from how to fight climate change to how to help those in remote areas who struggle to access art.
Thomas Jelley proposed that Oulu2026 take the lead in twinning schools in northern Finland with schools in other countries so children have more hands-on experience of culture elsewhere in Europe.
Jenni Räinä emphasised the need for people from different backgrounds to talk face-to-face. “There’s a huge energy in these meetings and it helps widen our views,” she said.
According to Teemu Kurkela, Akola will serve as a bubble where people can leave behind their comfort zones and look beyond their own narrow fields of interest.
“Most people have been brainwashed to stay in their own boxes. Here, they will meet strangers without having read their CVs first. That will have a big impact,” Kurkela suggested.
The discussion was followed by the first ever performance in the Annex, attended by an audience of 60 people, the majority of them residents of Ii.
The performance involved calligraphic artist Pan Jianfeng painting a large artwork on a pristine canvas laid out in the middle of the barn, using vihta, a bundle of birch branches normally seen in saunas, dipped in rich, dark ink.
He moved across the space barefoot and blindfolded, intensely focussed, creating sweeping arcs and sharp lines and leaving smudges and trails across the paper – all that in perfect synch with the deep, intense notes of saxophone player Tapani Rinne that flew through the barn, setting a pace that was meditative and raw at the same time.
The unique blend of visual art, physically and music created a live, immersive experience that mesmerised the audience.
“It was very intense,” said audience member Petri Kulju. “It was nice to see the process, how he was moving with the music and playing with the ink.”
To Teemu Kurkela, it was a magical experience to watch the barn becoming an art venue.
“Suddenly we have a stage in the middle, we have a big artwork in the middle. It’s a complete transformation.”
Pan Jianfeng’s painting was the first piece of art born from collaboration, emotion and rhythm in Akola Manor. There will be many more cathartic moments there in the next two years and possibly beyond, proving that people from diverse geographical and professional backgrounds can develop shared visions.
Judging from the success of last summer’s test event, Akola Forum has the potential to become a blueprint that can be used anywhere in the word for establishing meaningful, progressive dialogue, uniting people to spread culture outside big urban centres.
