Projects 2003

A billboard will be put up in the Kämppi area in Helsinki dealing with the alteration of the city center by intervening public space.

Oskar Lindström and Martijn van Berkum

Opening
The new cultural cafe Verandan in Lasipalatsi above Cafe Java, Mannerheimmintie 22 - 24
11th of April 2003 from 5 until 7 pm


Introduction
The project is a research in the different ways construction is changing small and big towns. It juxtapositions local cultural identity of the town next to global and economical interests in the strive for the utopic urban landscape. It intervenes in public space by infiltrating the landscape with a billboard. The project is carried out in different kind of towns and in different ways to give a divers picture of urban alterations.

The billboard is a digitally manipulated picture of a scaffolding photographed at a specific site in the town the project takes place. I t will be placed on a strategic location in the same town for a period of time. The scaffolding is made by Martijn van Berkum and photographed by Oskar Lindström.

The project simultaneously takes part in Helsinki and Porto. In Helsinki the billboard will be placed in the corner of Simonkatu - Mannerheimintie from 11th April to 4th June, and in Porto at Rua Passos Manuel in cooperation with artist-run spaces Maus Hábitos and MORGEN.


Part #1 Helsinki City

Background
The project takes place in the Helsinki city center at the Simonkenttä square. At the moment the square is under construction and will be changed into the Kamppi Center. This will be a combined coachstation, metrostation, department store, marketplace, underground parking lot, office area and housing area. It is a hybrid project that engages the highest standards of modern city paradigms using advanced technology and expertise. It combines the commercial need for streamlined, optimized shopping environment with the necessary supply of customers by maximum accesibility and mobility.

The billboard
The billboard shows neither the past nor the future of the Simonkenttä square, but the moment the actual shift from one to the other takes place. This is a non-moment, a void in the history of the square. The construction site shows the real size of the project, its ambition and the advanced technology that is used to build it. All this will ultimately be hidden under a smoothly rendered surface and a streamlined system of commuting and consuming.
The billboard and the scaffolding symbolize the ambition of such big projects, the strive for the perfect urban landscape and the constant development of city paradigms.

The project is financed by the Netherlands Foundation of Visual Arts, Design and Architecture, Svarvars Trävaruhandel in Nykarleby and the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Helsinki. It is carried out in cooperation with Nifca, the Nordic Institution for contemporary art, artists¹ association MUU, the Helsinki city Art Museum, SRV Viitoset, the Swedish Production School in Helsinki, the new cultural café Verandan and FinnFemFel in Finland.

For more information:
www.tmvb.nl
www.muu.fi

Martijn van Berkum
mobile Finland: +358 (0)41 5790 361
mobile Holland: +31 (0)6 1443 4808
tmvb@xs4all.nl

Oskar Lindström
Mobile finland: +358 400 47 16 91
f_art@surfeu.fi

• Projektin esittely
• Introduktion