In 1993 the International Turku Environmental Art Project was initiated by the city of Turku. The aim of the project has been to acquire public environmental art works of high quality by well-known artists to enliven the cityscape of Turku.
Despite the doubts that were uttered in the beginning, the project has advanced steadily. With material, financial, and know how contributions (also from the private sector), numerous art works have been realized. The significance of the Turku Environmental Art Project has been recognized; in 1996 the Foundation for Environmental Art in Finland honored the project with a national award.
The eighth’ realized work of the project, the ”Transparent Dream” by the Dutch artist Ger C. Bout, was inaugurated in the autumn of 1996. This work created during its planning stage, perhaps the most extensive public discussion in Turku so far, concerning any single work of the project. Local artists and art organizations, local inhabitant associations, city officials as well as private persons participated in the lively exchange of opinions on various forums. The main subject that run through this discussion like a thread was the relationship between a public artwork and its environment, and in connection with this, the relationship between architecture and environmental art in general.
Consequently it can be noted that the ”Transparent Dream” by Ger C. Bout meets one central requirement of a successful environmental artwork: not only has it succeeded in arousing people’ s interest in the artwork itself, but it also brought up questions and activated discussion concerning the cityscape as a whole. As far as the further development of the cityscape of Turku and the contentment of the inhabitants with their residential environment is concerned, this kind of activeness is of crucial importance. An indication of such an interest is also this book, written by representatives of the cultural and academic life of Turku.
On behalf of the city of Turku I express my gratitude to the artist Ger C. Bout. I also wish to thank Pintos Oy., Aurajoki Oy., and the Turku Vocational Institute of Techno logy, who undertook the realization of the “Transparent Dream” in practice.
(Armas Lahoniitty, Mayor of the City of Turku)