Pleasure garden
Open daily 23rd July to 7th August 7 am to 9 pm
Puijo forest
WHAT IS PLEASURE GARDEN
Pleasure Garden is a listening garden, a sound installation designed by acclaimed australian artist Genevieve Lacey. Visitors of all ages and backgrounds are enveloped by gentle sounds as they wander through the soundscape and nature of Puijo Forest, or sit a while and listen. Pleasure Garden fuses music, field recordings and technology to create a contemplative environmental experience.
Pleasure Garden encourages attentiveness. Its meditative music attunes people to details of life cycles that often go unnoticed. Resonances emanate from plants. Birdsong and insect hum feel unusually present as the garden and its visitors are wreathed in subtle sound.
Musically, it’s delicate, meticulously balanced to each place it visits, so that the sounds of the local habitat play a central role. The composition is spacious, blurring the lines between its own melodies and the surrounding ambiance. Some layers of Pleasure Garden’s composition are only triggered by movement, and float quietly across the space as visitors explore.
Pleasure Garden is a listening garden, a sound installation designed by acclaimed australian artist Genevieve Lacey. Visitors of all ages and backgrounds are enveloped by gentle sounds as they wander through the soundscape and nature of Puijo Forest, or sit a while and listen. Pleasure Garden fuses music, field recordings and technology to create a contemplative environmental experience.
Pleasure Garden encourages attentiveness. Its meditative music attunes people to details of life cycles that often go unnoticed. Resonances emanate from plants. Birdsong and insect hum feel unusually present as the garden and its visitors are wreathed in subtle sound.
Musically, it’s delicate, meticulously balanced to each place it visits, so that the sounds of the local habitat play a central role. The composition is spacious, blurring the lines between its own melodies and the surrounding ambiance. Some layers of Pleasure Garden’s composition are only triggered by movement, and float quietly across the space as visitors explore.
WHERE IS PLEASURE GARDEN
Pleasure Garden is located in the wild forest of Puijo nature reserve c. 600 m from the Puijo Tower along Konttilan kierto nature path. Signage leading to the walkway to Pleasure Garden starts by the Puijo Tower, next to the ice cream stand, and leads behind the red Puijon maja restaurant.
From behind the Puijon maja follow the path with signage in to the forest. Turn left at a crossway with signage, and turn again left when you see Pleasure Garden signage leading to a small forest path.
Pleasure Garden begins at the wooden walkway and ends at the edge of the forest. The walkway to Pleasure Garden and the paths inside the Pleasure Garden area are nature paths, and will have elements of a wild forest along them, such as sticks, roots and fallen trees.
We kindly ask you to respect the Puijo nature while enjoying the forest. When walking around the Pleasure garden please take as much care as when walking in any wild nature environment and mind your step.
At Puijo nature reserve and Puijo tower visitors can enjoy quality food from three restaurants, and nature related activities by Puijo Peak. There is also a free chair lift from foot of Puijo hill to the tower operating daily 11 AM - 4 PM.
Pleasure Garden is located in the wild forest of Puijo nature reserve c. 600 m from the Puijo Tower along Konttilan kierto nature path. Signage leading to the walkway to Pleasure Garden starts by the Puijo Tower, next to the ice cream stand, and leads behind the red Puijon maja restaurant.
From behind the Puijon maja follow the path with signage in to the forest. Turn left at a crossway with signage, and turn again left when you see Pleasure Garden signage leading to a small forest path.
Pleasure Garden begins at the wooden walkway and ends at the edge of the forest. The walkway to Pleasure Garden and the paths inside the Pleasure Garden area are nature paths, and will have elements of a wild forest along them, such as sticks, roots and fallen trees.
We kindly ask you to respect the Puijo nature while enjoying the forest. When walking around the Pleasure garden please take as much care as when walking in any wild nature environment and mind your step.
At Puijo nature reserve and Puijo tower visitors can enjoy quality food from three restaurants, and nature related activities by Puijo Peak. There is also a free chair lift from foot of Puijo hill to the tower operating daily 11 AM - 4 PM.

MORE ABOUT PLEASURE GARDEN
"We are so excited to be taking Pleasure Garden into the Finnish forest. Until now, it has existed mainly in cultivated garden spaces, many of them walled, and quite secluded. The idea of bringing it to life in a wilder, open, more natural environment is inspiring for us, and there are no more magical places than Finnish forests. We think the work will take on new dimensions in Kuopio. We can’t wait to discover them, and share them with walkers, passersby, and listeners of all kinds."
-Genevieve Lacey
"We are so excited to be taking Pleasure Garden into the Finnish forest. Until now, it has existed mainly in cultivated garden spaces, many of them walled, and quite secluded. The idea of bringing it to life in a wilder, open, more natural environment is inspiring for us, and there are no more magical places than Finnish forests. We think the work will take on new dimensions in Kuopio. We can’t wait to discover them, and share them with walkers, passersby, and listeners of all kinds."
-Genevieve Lacey
Inspired by the story and music of Jacob van Eyck – the 17th-century Dutch musician, composer, improviser and nobleman – Pleasure Garden combines excerpts from his work, set within new music composed by Genevieve Lacey (Australia) and Jan Bang (Norway).
Musically, the work is subtle, in order to create room for visitors to dream, to play and to think. It combines some of van Eyck’s melodies, field recordings from the places in which it was made (Australia, Holland and Norway), and contemporary electro-acoustic sound art. It layers and morphs versions of Genevieve and her many recorders.
The music of Pleasure Garden is represented on two recordings released by Genevieve Lacey on Australian label, ABC Classics: Pleasure Garden & Line Drawings: The music of Jacob van Eyck
Musically, the work is subtle, in order to create room for visitors to dream, to play and to think. It combines some of van Eyck’s melodies, field recordings from the places in which it was made (Australia, Holland and Norway), and contemporary electro-acoustic sound art. It layers and morphs versions of Genevieve and her many recorders.
The music of Pleasure Garden is represented on two recordings released by Genevieve Lacey on Australian label, ABC Classics: Pleasure Garden & Line Drawings: The music of Jacob van Eyck