The Golden Blessing

The Golden Blessing – Golden Pomp, Sanctuary of Splendour is a celebration of the physical, a charmingly eccentric toilet where the sublime meets the human and winks at the viewer. Can the sacred flow upward?

In June 2025, the portaloo outside Helsinki’s Lasipalatsi was draped in gold. At its heart is a fully functional portaloo, clad in gold and transformed into an artistic space. An everyday toilet becomes a stage on which cultural meanings related to shame, physicality and humour are revealed in a new light.

In 2025–26, The Golden Blessing expanded into a sound installation. The expanded sound installation will be presented at the Collisionpoints Festival in Sweden in summer 2026.

Materials: portable toilet, gold foil, lighting, sound
Location: outdoor public space

Concept, composition and installation: Iris Bernoulli
Sound design: Iris Bernoulli & Sirja Puurtinen
Voice: Tuuli Lindeberg
Technical installation: Marko Tanninen
Title translations into English by Peikko Pitkänen

Supported by Suomalais-ruotsalainen kulttuurirahasto (Finnish-Swedish Cultural Fund).

Kun hän kuuli lumen
hiljaa lankeavan maailmankaikkeuden läpi

As he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe

Composition, costumes,
stage design: Iris Bernoulli
Pianist: Anna Kuvaja
Soprano: Tuuli Lindeberg
Mezzo-soprano: Inga Sauranen
Tenor: Aarne Mansikka

Quotation from The Dead by James Joyce, translated into Finnish by Pentti Saarikoski

Valon laatuja I–III

Qualities of Light I-III

Visual score for a singer.

Selonteko

Report

Visual score for a singer.

The Golden Blessing

Kun hän kuuli lumenhiljaa lankeavan maailmankaikkeuden läpi

Valon laatuja I–III

Selonteko

Kun hän kuuli lumen
hiljaa lankeavan maailmankaikkeuden läpi