Juhani Pallasmaa’s work Traces of Memory was erected to commemorate the centenary of Wäinö Aaltonen’s birth. The memorial’s steel structure marks the location of a studio that once stood beside Aaltonen’s childhood home but no longer survives.

The memorial incorporates a bronze cast of Aaltonen’s female figure A Muse from 1928. In art, a muse refers to one of the ancient guardian goddesses of the arts and sciences and often represents an artist’s source of inspiration.