SCULPTURES
Aikamatka 20360 (Time Journey 20360) was an immersive community art installation in Runosmäki, made possible by the city of Turku. It took visitors on a journey through time, from the big bang all the way to the year 20360 (also the local postal code). The exhibition was built in the former youth center and library of Runosmäki, utilising almost only recycled materials, either left behind in the building or received as donations. Anyone was welcome to take part in the project and 300 participants of all ages and backgrounds came together over nine months to fill an area of 700 square-meters with art from floor to ceiling.
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The exhibition opened to the public on the 1st of March 2025 and remained open until autumn free of charge. In little over six months it gained almost 53 000 visitors, was awarded the Turku medal for significant work benefitting Turku and its inhabitants and strengthening community spirit, as well as coming second in the race for 'Vuoden turkulainen 2025'.
I worked as the projects producer and community artist, together with my work partner and mother Pia Bartsch. My beloved sauropod dinosaur Hilma also moved from Mynä-Mynä-Maa in Mynämäki to her new home in Runosmäki, where she turned from a juvenile Brachiosaurus to a fully grown Europasaurus, alongside other sculptures I had created for the previous community art project. I also created new sculptures for Aikamatka 20360, including various dinosaurs, amphibians and trophy-heads of mammals made extinct by humans. They were all created using principally recycled materials such as cardboard, papier-mache, newspaper, foam mattress and scrap wood. All have been painted using acrylic paints.
After Aikamatka 20360 Hilma the Europasaurus moved to the jungles of our local botanical garden in Ruissalo with her two offspring, to live happily ever after.
Mynä-Mynä-Maa is Koneen Säätiö - Saari residence's community art project that was built in a former care home (Lizelius koti) scheduled for demolition, located in Mynämäki. Over 250 people participated, ranging in age from 1 to over 80 years old. Together we created 43 magical rooms and 72 artworks, during the course of about one and a half years in 2020-2022. Almost all materials used to build Mynä-Mynä-Maa were recycled. The exhibition was open from May till August 2022, during which over 10 000 people visited.
I participated with my own room as well as helping with many other rooms and artworks, and also advising other participants on construction and materials.
I turned a small storeroom into a prehistoric forest containing plants and creatures from the Jurassic period, including a two meter tall Brachiosaurus called Hilma, two small Compsognathus's, a flying Pterodactyl and dragonfly, and a dozen or so cycads. Hilma has been built onto a table from cardboard pipes, old mattresses, newspaper and papier mache. The smaller creatures are made using wire as a base structure, topped with newspaper, masking tape and papier mache. The cycad trees are built out of large carboard pipes around which I wrapped corrugated cardboard cut out in strips. The leaves were painstakingly glued on a strip of wire and cut out of thick paper and painted. The floor covering was cut out of mainly recycled carpets.
Mynä-Mynä-Maa will open again this summer, check for information and updates at www.facebook.com/mynamynamaa.
