“What if we, ordinary people, could decide what kinds of messages we see on a bus stop, for a change”. This was the idea of Elissa Eriksson, art education student who became tired of the overload of commercial messages in public space. Last December, she started a Facebook campaign, called “Haluan nähdä muutakin/ I want to see something else” to free some space from bus stop advertisements.
Elissa describes how her idea was born, last November: “I was waiting for a tram, thinking about my master’s thesis, which discusses the possibilities of ordinary people to participate legally in shaping their urban environment. Watching the advertisements at the tram stop, it occurred to me that you could comment on them from within the structures. I thought that I could possibly gather a group of friends to rent one tram stop.” (more…)
People on their way to work by train or metro during the early morning hours in Helsinki, may have noticed these poetic statements at the sides of roads and rail tracks. The works are made of yellow autumn leaves woven into wire mesh fences, saying: “
