Helsinki In Itäkeskus, a small but significant mural graces a forgotten place.
The work is the handiwork of a world-famous artist, but after 30 years there was not much left of it.
It’s about a Frenchman, influential in Berlin by Thierry Noir a work called We always buy our milk from Itäkeskus. The work is on both sides of the pedestrian bridge between the shopping center Itiksen and the cultural center Stoa.
Thierry Noir’s work on the side of the pedestrian bridge in Itäkeskus is called We buy our milk always from Itäkeskus.
Deputy Mayor of Helsinki for Culture and Leisure Paavo Arhinmäki became aware of the situation when a city resident who was upset about the badly dilapidated work contacted him.
Noir (b. 1958) is best known for his paintings on the Berlin Wall. After the fall of the wall, pieces of Noir’s works have been sold at high prices. Noir’s colorful works can be found on the streets of many metropolises around the world.
Arhinmäki found out what could be done about the faded and cracked work in Itäkeskus. Noir has other works in Helsinki, and he has restored one himself.
Arhinmäki thought to ask Noir if he would like to come and restore the Itäkeskus piece as well. The busy artist suggested that Arhinmäki could do the work for him.
In 2019, Thierry Noir restored the mural on Leipziger Platz in the remains of the Berlin Wall.
So on Friday morning, a section of the second lane of Turunlinnantie was closed and Arhinmäki climbed onto the crane with his paintbrushes to get to the mural on the bridge.
He had a street artist and a youth worker to help him Samuli Turunen and a student of surface treatment Snow Lily.
A mural the history is somewhat secretive: it was created unofficially and perhaps semi-illegally during Noir’s visit in 1994. According to Arhinmäki, neither the work nor the permission obtained for its creation can be found in the city’s books.
At that time, Noir did the agreed-upon mural in Helsinki on the portico of Kaapelitehta.
However Also in the Helsingin Sanomat article it is mentioned about that visit that, along with the Cable Factory, he planned to go paint the Itäkeskus bridge.
The mural to be renovated is located on the footbridge between the Itäkeskus shopping center and the Stoa cultural center.
“We found out that the city’s cultural director at the time had told Noir to just go paint,” says Arhinmäki.
Works of Noir can also be found in Helsinki at the Kino Engel cinema and in the yard of an apartment building in Ruoholahti.
Kaapelitehta’s work is called Let Us Be Your Mental Dentist Noir did the restoration himself in 2016.
On Midsummer 2023, Deputy Mayor Arhinmäki got caught from the act of illegal graffiti along the train track that runs to the port of Vuosaari. In January, the district court of Itä-Uusimaa condemned him for causing damage to a fine.
Thierry Noir’s mural at the Cable Factory photographed in 2017.
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