The Secret Capital of EGS – an art tour through hidden Helsinki
28 August – 30 September, 2026
Experience The Secret Capital of EGS from the comfort of your own home, take the art tour at your own pace or book a place on a guided tour.
The Secret Capital of EGS is a multiform artwork unfolding from Amos Rex into the urban space. 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.
The route to the secret capital will be published on Friday 28 August at 4 PM.
The Secret Capital of EGS Guide
The Secret Capital of EGS Guide is a full-colour, 44-page tabloid publication that leads you through the hidden side of Helsinki. Filled with maps, stories, artworks, graffiti, fact and fiction, it reveals the secret capital of the Republic of EGS one location at a time.
The guide is both a walking companion for the art tour and a collector’s item. Available free from Amos Rex in a limited edition. The museum is closed from 7 September to 13 October.
Other pick-up points: Karhu Concept Store (Lasipalatsi, Mannerheimintie 22-24), Luckan (Yrjönkatu 27) ja Putte’s Bar & Pizza (Kalevankatu 6).
Published 28 August at 4 PM.
Art tour souvenirs
Each guided tour participant will receive a medal and a numbered race bib designed by EGS. The race bib is produced in collaboration with Karhu. Both items are limited editions.
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 guided The Secret Capital of EGS art tour begins at Amos Rex. The group meets the guide in the museum’s upper lobby.
Bring your mobile phone and headphones to scan the QR codes along the way.
Tour schedule
Saturday, 29 August, 2 – 3 pm (LANGUAGE: ENGLISH) SOLD OUT
Monday, 31 August, 5.30 – 6.30 pm (LANGUAGE: FINNISH) SOLD OUT
Wednesday, 2 September, 5.30 – 6.30 pm (LANGUAGE: FINNISH) SOLD OUT
Friday, 4 September, 5.30 – 6.30 pm (LANGUAGE: FINNISH) SOLD OUT
Saturday, 5 September, 2 – 3 pm (LANGUAGE: FINNISH) SOLD OUT
Advance booking is required for the tours.
Ticket prices
General admission: €20
Pensioners: €10
Museum Card or under 30 years old: €5
To start the self-guided tour, pick up a free copy of The Secret Capital of EGS Guide your nearest distribution point: Karhu Concept Store (Lasipalatsi, Mannerheimintie 22–24), Luckan (Yrjönkatu 27) ja Putte’s Bar & Pizza (Kalevankatu 6).
The tour starts behind Amos Rex, at Lasipalatsi Square. You can also take the tour digitally. Below, you’ll find the six sites on The Secret Capital of EGS art tour.
Bring your mobile phone and headphones to scan the QR codes along the way.
Join us for a walk into the capital of the Republic of EGS, on the other side of the ordinary world.
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 differ- ently. 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.
Tour sites
Credits
EGS: EGS
Publication
Editor: Esa G. Salminen
Graphic Design: Tom Backström
Translation: EläväKieli
Prepress: Per Englund
Images: Dario Lasagni (8, 9, 18, 19, 29, 37, 38–39, 42, 43); Tero Jussila (18); Unto Laitila / Helsingin kaupunginmuseo (18); Harri Ahola / Helsingin kaupunginmuseo (19); Jarkko Tikka (6); EGS & International Penpals
Typefaces: Area, Attila Sans, BC Blot, BC Novatica, BC Unciala, LL Agip 77, Minion, Modulator, Slight Chance
Edition: 1000
Printing: Printall AS, Estonia
Films
Direction, Cinematography and Editing: Jaro Koho
Production: Aamu Milonoff
The National Theatre of EGS
Actors: Juho Milonoff, Janne Reinikainen, Tellervo Jalas, Meri Lukkanen, Aslak Mamadou, Antto Melasniemi
Music: From Lake Töölö to Finland Station – Kamrad Charlie
Costume Design: Salla Oinas
Make-up: Leila Mäkynen
Voice Actors: Njassa, Vilma Melasniemi, Aoi Yoshizawa
Sound Recording: Heta-Maria Pyhäjärvi
Camera Assistant: Vesi
Production Assistant: Teo Milonoff
Väinämöinen’s Costume: Sakari Saaristo
Equipment: Velho Light & Sound, Valofirma, Kinos Rentals, Yle Puvusto
© EGS & Amos Rex 2026