The Secret Capital of EGS – an art tour through hidden Helsinki
28 August – 30 September, 2026
The Secret Capital of EGS is a joint project by Amos Rex and EGS that transforms Helsinki into an alternative exhibition and an experimental map, experienced by walking along a pre-marked route.
The Secret Capital of EGS is a multiform artwork unfolding from Amos Rex into the urban space, which can be walked and experienced in autumn 2026. The work explores how we see and experience the city: what layers and memories it conceals, which traces have been erased, and to whom the city’s narrative truly belongs.
In the artwork, Helsinki is revealed as the forgotten and lost capital of the fictional state known as the Republic of EGS. From the city’s layers emerge lost memories, subcultures, rumors and legends, real historical events and figures, as well as surprising works of art. The city functions both as a stage and as a map, where the real and the imagined intertwine.
EGS (b. 1974) is a contemporary Finnish artist whose practice is rooted in graffiti. He began his graffiti career over 30 years ago by writing the letters “EGS” across Helsinki and Europe. These three letters have since become the foundation of his work, exploring themes like identity, history, place, and movement.
EGS works across drawing, painting, glass sculpture, and installation, with recurring interests in cartography, exploration, and social history. His practice translates the language of graffiti into institutional contexts, maintaining its spontaneity and adventurous approach while expanding its material and conceptual scope. Repetition, travel, mapping, and the abstraction of language are central to his work.
In 2020, EGS presented a solo exhibition at the Finnish Glass Museum, highlighting his experimental use of glass as a sculptural medium. He has collaborated with glass studios in Finland and Murano, Italy, and continues to explore glass as both material and metaphor.
His solo exhibitions include Didrichsen Art Museum, Serlachius, Kunsthalle Helsinki, Urban Spree Galerie, Albert Contemporary, and Spazio C21. EGS has also participated in the Helsinki Biennial, ARCO Madrid, and KIAF Seoul. His work is included in the collections of the Finnish National Gallery, Kiasma, HAM, Serlachius, and Didrichsen.
Alongside his gallery and museum work, EGS continues to paint graffiti internationally.
The Secret Capital of EGS is a collaborative project between Amos Rex and EGS, one of Finland’s most acclaimed graffiti artists. As part of the project, EGS has embedded six new artworks in central Helsinki, revealing the city as the lost capital of an imagined state.
On these guided walking tours, participants explore EGS’s artworks with an Amos Rex guide. Along the way, you’ll hear stories about the lost capital of the Republic of EGS, where alternative pasts and futures converge. Everyone who joins the tour will receive a copy of an EGS publication and a commemorative medal designed by EGS to take home.
Tour schedule
Saturday, 29 August, 2 – 3 pm
Monday, 31 August, 5.30 – 6.30 pm
Wednesday, 2 September, 5.30 – 6.30 pm
Friday, 4 September, 5.30 – 6.30 pm
Saturday, 5 September, 2 – 3 pm
A spot must be reserved in advance for the tours.
Ticket prices
General admission: €20
Pensioners: €10
Museum Card or under 30 years old: €5
Below you’ll find the six stations of The Secret Capital of EGS art tour.
You can also explore the artworks on your own in addition to joining guided tours.
Join us for a walk into the capital of the Republic of EGS, on the other side of the ordinary world. You can explore by yourself, in a group, or a handful of times with a guide in late summer – or even virtually from the comfort of your own sofa.
While walking is a good way of getting to know the city and its layers, most important of all is a receptive state of mind and fine-tuning of the senses, the right eyes, ears and tactile senses – all the while making sure to twist those straight lines into bends as you go.
The capital of EGS is built not of houses but of feelings. Its streets are pathways created by those who walk them. Its town squares are encounters: on one day in the yard outside a museum, on another day under a bridge, and on a third in a secret hall where the rhythm of the bass brings strangers together. The city’s galleries both caress and perplex art lovers in tunnels, next to train tracks, and in abandoned buildings.
The passageways and alleys of the capital form an archive preserving lost histories, alternative myths, and unofficial narratives. Fact and fiction live side by side, contradictions are drawn on the same map.
This walk will take wanderers to different times and places, as the capital of EGS does not follow linear time. Here, myths from antiquity, visions of modernism, post-Cold-War geopolitics, and infrastructure of the future exist alongside one another. Everything you see and hear in the city will remain here, but at the same time it will all become something brand new.
The city begins when the familiar world is seen differently. The same streets, ground and horizon, but shifting meanings. The capital of EGS is born from and ends with this movement.
Join us on the journey.