Helsinki
MAY 2018
"I named the sitting bear Ursula and the smiling one Baloo and yes, while working on the by than still nameless chunk of clay, I had “Bare Necessities” stuck in my head for there months."
I was fortuned to be invited to Pasila Street Art District by Helsinki Urban Art. The invitation came from Jaakko Blomberg in December 2017. After a three months of proposals and ideas going back and forth me and Jaakko decided to go big,.. really big, bigger than life size for Pasila. Things started to develop quickly and soon I was working on two giant chunks of clay soon to be turned into brown bears. To get things ready for May 2018 sleep was a mere word, not a thing I had time to do. Working with ceramics I was aware that a.) I would need a lot of material and b.) I needed to transport the ceramics, the tile grout and everything else up to Helsinki somehow. Tasked with the logistics behind this mural I decided to ask for support.
I was in luck. Henkel, who produces Cimsec tile grout, decided to help out with a material sponsorship. And the Austrian Embassy in Helsinki helped with the shipping of 190kg of ceramics, tile grout and material. I was very fortunate and therefore would like to say “Thank you” to all who where involved in this crazy scheme to brig two 3m tall ceramic bears to Helsinki. Most of all Jaakko and Helsinki Urban Art for inviting me, Peter for being the best “I’m running out of time, the workshop is on fire” assistant I ever had and possible will have, Österreichische Botschaft Helsinki for supporting the whole thing, BMEIA for also helping with the transport and Henkel for 60kg of tile adhesive sponsoring. Without them this crazy 15m long, 3,5m tall and 190kg heavy mural would not have happened.
