Museum of the Near Future 1

Museum of the Near Future (MNF) is an apparatus for looking sideways at and intervening in urban situations and institutions. It presents itself as social installations—such as literary circles or other temporary communities—which are set up on museum premises. Producing space for imagination and discourse, these parasitic installations attempt to destabilize perceptions of what is possible, and desirable, between the now and the next in a given area.

The first iteration of Museum of the Near Future took place at the Museum of Finnish Architecture’s dormant villa in Helsinki during autumn 2011 and in collaboration with Berlin-based Motto Distribution. MNF I explored micro-political and experimental modes of participation in Helsinki, a city undergoing grand urban transformations, such as its rapid expansion to centrally located former harbour areas or the recent identity-defining missions. Composed of a thematic book society/shop in an underused institutional facility, and involving activities such as readings, a narrated field trip and publishing around it, the installation attempted to marry personal and public spaces, while proposing literature as a tool for making (or affecting) places.

This publication tells the story of MNF I and extends it in a Risograph printed numbered and limited edition.