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Place: Helsinki Central Park
Activity: Reconstructing a grilling scenario
Key Words: disgust, desperation, an others space
Collecting trash at the rock
The day we made the trash installation we were actually planning to find a spot to build a hutch. The hutch was to be a one day gallery to collect all our experiences, due to bad weather it never happen, and therefore this virtual hutch, telling our story was made. So we walked into the central park in Helsinki, which is actually more like an forest with numerous paths. On the outskirts of the park we found a rock, near by a children's play yard. The spot was very nice, yet there was a lot of trash around. We started to collect the trash, partly to clean up the area because it would have been a nice spot for the hutch, partly because we just were annoyed that people left trash after them in the park.
While collecting the trash we started to think who had been there and what had happened at that location. Like CSI investigators we started to build a profile of the people and the situation, which turned out to be a quite sad one. We found all kind of evidence of drug abuse. Beer cans, cigarettes, needles and other accessories for heavy drug use. Of course when we started to pick up the trash we got some plastic bags and glows from the pharmacy, yet finding the needles mad us careful while picking up stuff. The food we found was mostly fast food and a disposable grill. So obviously people came to the rock to hang out, drink and even eat. In this atmosphere it was sad to find baby diapers and a dogs water bowl, you wouldn't want to see kids and pets hang around with this crowd. We also found learning material for a truck driver, someone trying to get employed? Yet giving up and falling back to old habits of drug abuse? Of course both our prejudice and encounters with drug abusers heavily formed our story about the place. We were wondering how people walking in the park did not get disturbed about this crowd and the trash they left around. Of course the spot was a bit hidden, not by a path...what if this would happen just by a path where people were daily jogging or having their Sunday promenade.
Reconstructing the scenario
So we took the trash down to the path and set up a situation we imaged to have happened by the rock. The disposable grill in the middle, lot of drinks, drugs etc. Places to sit for a small group of people. We where surprised that so few people were interested about what we did, they just past by. We even tried to stop people to comment what they see in the situation, yet few were ready to contribute. The set up felt misplaced by the path, it was obvious the people wanted to hide and that is why they chose to stay at the rock. We ended the day by taking the trash to the big garbage bins by the park. In the end we made some art and cleaned up, yet we wonder if the people at the rock will notice we cleaned their hiding place, and if they would dislike our interference with their life/their spot.
The trash installation
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