Sculptor Kirsi Kaulanen (b. 1969) won a general competition organised by the State Artistic Committee for a sculpture for the Music Hall's Main Hall in 2010. Kaulanen's Gaia was assembled in August 2011, just before the opening of Musiikkitalo.

Gaia is named after the ancient Greek goddess of the earth. Fourteen metres long, 10 metres high and weighing 2 200 kilograms, the polished stainless steel sculpture is also visible through a window on Mannerheimintie. The work appears as a horn, a landscape or a rotating form. The connection to nature is created by the free-flowing form and the Finnish endangered plants depicted in the work. There are 28 different plant species on display.

Kirsi Kaulanen has illustrated the dual starting points of her sculpture by linking Gaia to both a real experience of nature and an abstract idea. The work relates to the experience of looking at the landscape from the top of a fellscape, which offers a 360-degree view. As you descend the slope of the mountain - or the steps of the Main Hall - the details of the landscape stand out: the delicate plants. On a more conceptual level, the sculpture explores the idea of an expanding form, which we know from mandalas or the expansion of a dripping drop of water.

Gaia is an intriguing public work because its organic form is emphasised alongside the reduced architecture. The work can be seen from several angles inside the building, transforming the experience as if you were walking through a landscape. The varying lighting design also emphasises the changing nature of the work.