To the Center
October 30th 2014,
Kehityspäivä
for the staff (ca. 70 attending people) of all the cultural centers in Helsinki.
The day was meant to introduce a new strategy to the staff: cultural activities away from the city center towards the periphery...
I entered as a tourist with a suitcase on rolls.
I told them I was in the tourist information where they handed me a map of Helsinki. Nice, so I could show them where I live: in Vuosaari. But Vuosaari is not on the map! It is too far east, the map for tourists shows only the center...
Then I turned to my bag, zipped it open and took out 30 to 40 balls of thick wool. I kept the threads in my left hand and rolled the balls towards the audience. I asked them to pick these up and so they did (not all.. but then, there were also more people than threads). When all balls were picked up I raised my left hand and started to turn around my axis. Some people unrolled their ball as fast as possible, others came immediately towards me.
It must have been a beautiful sight: me the pole in the center of a huge tent with people around. Pity: no photo there!
In the end I was so entangled and almost suffocated by the people closest to me, that I had cut the threads to free myself.
Kehityspäivä
for the staff (ca. 70 attending people) of all the cultural centers in Helsinki.
The day was meant to introduce a new strategy to the staff: cultural activities away from the city center towards the periphery...
I entered as a tourist with a suitcase on rolls.
I told them I was in the tourist information where they handed me a map of Helsinki. Nice, so I could show them where I live: in Vuosaari. But Vuosaari is not on the map! It is too far east, the map for tourists shows only the center...
Then I turned to my bag, zipped it open and took out 30 to 40 balls of thick wool. I kept the threads in my left hand and rolled the balls towards the audience. I asked them to pick these up and so they did (not all.. but then, there were also more people than threads). When all balls were picked up I raised my left hand and started to turn around my axis. Some people unrolled their ball as fast as possible, others came immediately towards me.
It must have been a beautiful sight: me the pole in the center of a huge tent with people around. Pity: no photo there!
In the end I was so entangled and almost suffocated by the people closest to me, that I had cut the threads to free myself.
The action took less than 15 minutes but I spent another two hours to untangle the heap of woolen threads, roll these to balls again and put those back into the suitcase, before I could make my exit.
photos: siw handroos-kelekay
