During August, the old shop in Konalanvuori will be transformed into an art and research space, where the past and future of old shopping centers will be considered.
I do not there is a shopping center on top. It looks like an ordinary shop of its time: a two-part and slightly dilapidated building, which today lives under the threat of demolition.
That’s kind of how it is. The Konalanvuori shopping center was designed by an architect Erkki Karvinen In the early 1960s, and the shopper’s future is uncertain. It may face demolition or decommissioning and conversion into apartments.
But there is more to the buyer. It is an important meeting place, where you can find, among other things, a pizzeria, a bar and a garden shop – and soon also an art exhibition.
Within the precincts of lived since he was a little boy Antti Saarikoski sitting on the terrace of the shopper’s Amigo bar. He has spent both Christmas and New Years at the shop.
“This shop is like home to me. I love this store.”
Saarikoski says that for 20 years he has taken a selfie from the dentist’s window almost every week.
Now taking selfies has stopped, because the dentist has moved to another space, and the mirror tapes in the shop window have been torn off.
Antti Saarikoski has taken several hundred selfies from the dentist’s window. Now the mirror tapes on the window have been removed for the upcoming exhibition.
Inside when you enter the former dentist’s premises, you notice that a new life has begun there. There are unfinished works of art lying on the floor, all of which relate to the shop theme in one way or another.
The works of art started a couple of years ago, when a visual and performance artist from Helsinki Salla Valle began to see beauty in old oysters.
“I realized the shoppers in a different way, with new eyes. They embody their own time. They are linear, harsh and clean in style.”
Valle told his long-time friend, the artist-curator, about his observations Miina Pohjolainen, which studies the effects of economic upheavals on urban development.
A shared interest in Ostaris of the 1950s and 1970s took shape among the friends as the Ostaritukkissia project. The project will culminate in an art and research space to be organized in August at the old shop in Konalanvuori.
Miina Pohjolainen (left) and Salla Valle are designing their own showroom in the premises of a former dentist. In the room you can see, for example, what kind of materials the shop is made of.
Many old shops are under threat of demolition.
“We want to show that old premises can live several lives. It is an alternative to demolition and construction. You don’t have to change the physical spaces, but you can change the operation,” says Valle.
The duo shows what new art can bring to shopper research.
“We thought about how to document the unloaded ostras without a photograph. We’ve toured Helsinki’s old shops,” says Valle.
“And probably ate a hundred pizzas,” Pohjolainen laughs.
Together, they want to stop at the phenomenon and make others think about it.
“We are sparking a discussion about what remains forgotten and what values the shops were once built on. How values have changed and how the future is structured.”
Funding the project came with a grant from the Kone Foundation and a grant from the City of Helsinki. The organizing duo looked for artists outside their own circles.
The organizing duo looked for the remaining artists from outside their own circles. In the picture, artists Miina Pohjolainen (left), Saara-Maria Kariranta, Nikki Jääskeläinen and Salla Valle.
Urban space as a theme is close to the visual artist Nikki Jääskeläinen heart. The answer was clear to him when Valle and Pohjolainen invited him to join the project.
“Why not get excited when you’re getting paid for this.”
Jääskeläinen is inspired by the darkening and wear of the old dentist’s waiting room. They tell him about the life he lived. He has worked on the shopping theme before and brings both old and new creations to the exhibition.
Also an artist For Saara-Maria Kariranna being involved in the project was obvious. He is particularly interested in the communicative power of art and how art is part of the community.
Kariranta is currently peeling off the inner surface of the chip bag to make it float in the air with the help of helium.
There is still a lot to do in the former dentist’s premises before the grand opening. Artist Nikki Jääskeläinen is inspired by the wear and tear of spaces that tell of the time lived.
The project involves cooperation with the shopper Pizzeria Dilber. Artist Shubhangi Singh has painted works of art on pop-up pizza boxes.
An artist couple Shubhangi Singh and Kush Badhwar on the other hand, they have included shopper Pizzeria Dilberi in the project. Singh has lino-printed artwork on the pizza boxes, and Badwar has created a karaoke video performance to be played in the pizzeria.
Pitseria was founded in Ostari in 1996. It has fed Saarikoski, who has also been taking selfies, ever since he was a little boy.
Everyone in the area seems to know the pizzeria where the owner is Rasul Tak sings to his customers in Kurdish.
The old dentist’s door opens, and Tak brings coffee to the caffeine-hungry.
“Vanha ostari is a valuable place and this could be a place worth protecting,” says Tak.
Takki hopes to find a new Toimitila for his lace series. Due to the demolition plans, the pizzeria’s future is also threatened. The thought makes the owner’s eyes water.
“Dilberi, dilberi, dilberi”, Tak sighs. The word means love in Kurdish.
“It is really sad. There is no more Dilber.”
Rasul Tak’s brother founded Pizzeria Dilber in Konalanvuori Ostari in 1996. Artist Salla Valle next to him.
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