Graveyard for the Lunatics

In the early 1900s, Finland's psychiatric hospitals were worlds unto themselves — places where patients were subjected to lobotomy, insulin shock therapy, prolonged sedation, and years of isolation. Graveyard for the Lunatics takes you inside one of them.

A 360° VR documentary, the work transports viewers to Pitkäniemi psychiatric hospital as it once was. Your guide is Gustav — a character based on Gustav Willehad Hermo, a real chaplain who spent nearly 50 years institutionalised there. He knows every corridor, every room, every silence.

Produced with a crew of over 60 professionals, combining authentic period props with 3D reconstruction and spatial audio, the work premiered in 2018. It was shown at Kaapelitehdas as part of an XR event and later at Oodi library, where audiences queued for two hours to enter — and stayed to talk long after. On YouTube, the work has been viewed over 18,000 times, drawing an outpouring of responses from people moved by what they encountered.