In 1996 I was working in Turku, Finland on a project, which had a slow start and a happy ending. It enjoyed a certain bureaucratic attention, a tremendous public support and was one of the most published art projects in Finland of 1996.
In close cooperation with the city of Turku and several sponsors it was possible to realise my “Transparent Dream” project.
It is a full scale model of a well known and popular Finnish house type. A kind of grandma’s house: a house that everybody knows: one grew up there, one lived there, one spent summers there, etc. Many of those houses were built in Finland and without those, Finnish architecture would look different.
“My” house is made of thin steel nets (20 x 20 cm, 6 mm diameter ), and has the same size as a real house, two rooms, an entrance, an attic and a chiney. The model is completely three dimensional and completely transparent.
When my project in Turku was almost finished, I met mr. Nissim Tal, director from the Haifa Museum. The meeting was fruitful and we kept in touch. Nissim Tal liked the project. So I decided to visit him and the museum in Haifa. Turku and Haifa are connected. There are plans for cultural exchanges between these two harbour cities.
I decided to make a proposal. My first ideas concerned some kind of exchange of projects between these “almost capitals”. I considered bringing the concept of a Finnish “transparent sauna” to Haifa (as a symbol of Nordic culture, friendliness and trust) and had in mind to bring at the same time some “transparent fruit” from Haifa to Finland (as a symbol of Middle Eastern vitality, energy and sunshine).
During first visit to the city of Haifa and after meeting many people there, I realised that a transparent sauna would not work and a possible exchange would be too complicated. I felt that my concept would not be understood, nor as an artproject nor as symbol.
I had to change my ideas. but I also realised that colours were essential. Besides that I found that many people in Haifa did not know where the museum was and that public art was not very familiar. So I dropped the idea of the sauna and the exchange and kept the fruit: big colourful elements, cherries, apples, oranges, strawberries, and bananas a. o.
With these thoughts in mind I started seeing the museum as a dish of fruit. And that is what I am proposing: I am suggesting to transform the museum temporarily in a large dish of fruit, colourful and very visible, from many places in the city: open and enjoyable for everybody. It will be a lot of work and it will need a lot of support from many, many people. But it will be a lot of fun to try it.
Concept and Construction
Basically the installation consists of two parts: the transformation of the outside of the museum and the construction of the objects on the top. For the first part I prefer a construction of scaffold material, covered with materials of a suitable colour. Most of these can be found on many building sites all over the world. They are easy to use and safe. For the objects on top I have in mind a temporary steel construction covered with transparent plastics, illuminated from the inside. These have to be custom made.
The whole construction has to be prepared carefully. It has to be safe in all aspects, easy to build and easy to take down again. The help of local building specialists and builders, as well as sponsors is necessary. The preparation of the whole project might easily take half a year or mare depending from calculations, permits and sponsoring. The building should be a matter of weeks, as well as the end of the project.