Rakentajat / Builders, Cape Town – Helsinki 2012

Henkilökohtainen kaupunki – Personal City, art in urban space and gallery, MUU Gallery, Helsinki, 10-29 April 2012. Helsinki Photography Biennial 2012

Capetonian painter girls, 2012

Building cleaner in Helsinki-Vallila, 2012

All cities demolish and build all the time, particularly in relation to big events. City is a process. Building sites change the outlook of a city temporarily, renovated and new buildings the entire cityscape permanently. My aim is to bring southern building images to the north and take northern building images to the south, latest by 2014 when Cape Town is the World Design Capital, like Helsinki is in 2012. Through the images I seek to build interaction between cultures.

My family roots on my mother's side are in Vallila, Helsinki, where my grandpa worked as a bricklayer. Myself I have studied, lived and worked in Helsinki in patches. In Cape Town I have worked yearly since 2005. In both cities I have photographed dilapidated buildings, especially walls, as well as construction sites particularly in Cape Town. My latest photos from Cape Town are from March 2012. I printed them there on weatherproof ferrox sheets.

I attached the images on the walls and temporary structures at a building site of SRV Yhtiöt Oyj, visible to both the builders and passers-by (Vallila, Teollisuuskatu 3). In the South African way people were invited to add other materials along with the images, like stickers and graffiti. For a return visit to Cape Town I photograph builders at SRV's and other construction sites in Helsinki in 2012 onwards.

Rendezvous in Vallila in 2012: