What does it mean to bring money into a public space that is based on free access?

Artist Riiko Sakkinen has hidden 1,000 euros in five-euro banknotes inside red books at Oulu’s main library, Saari on 8th of February 2025.

Sakkinen has hidden the banknotes in freely borrowable books that are red in their covers, content, or attitude. Each banknote is stamped, numbered, and signed by the artist. The action is part of Sakkinen’s Red Books performance, and is part of the ARToulu art area and the official programme of Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture year.

What does bringing money into a public space reveal about the ideals of the welfare state, the logic of capitalism, or the funding of culture? Does the gesture question charity, give money a new mission, or make visible something that is already present in everyday life but often goes unnoticed: the significance of money in every institution?

Sakkinen (born 1976) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts Helsinki in 2002. His works have been exhibited widely around the world, including at MoMA in New York, Kiasma, Camden Art Centre in London, the Serlachius Museum in Mänttä, as well as in Stockholm and Spain.

Riiko Sakkinen describes himself as an artist, a dissident, and a one-man resistance movement. He is the founder of the anti-capitalist “turborealism” art movement. Sakkinen has worked internationally in various crisis areas such as Damascus and Aleppo in Syria, Beirut, Monterrey during Mexico’s drug war, and Kyiv during the war in Ukraine.

Sakkinen’s Red Books is part of the ARToulu art area’s performance programme, curated by artist Nestori Syrjälä. The ARToulu art area is a visual arts project produced by the Oulu Artist’s Association, in which public artworks are created in the neighbourhoods of the Oulu river delta. The art area is part of the official programme of Oulu’s European Capital of Culture year.