Layers of the city, infrastructure and urban underworld
Helsinki Underground is artist Tuomas Aleksander Laitinen’s art project, which is an official part of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 program. The project comprises of a video art work, sound installation and a photographic book.
Video art work
In the narrative short film and video installation Laitinen discusses the underground world separate from the world above the ground and events in the underground spaces in Helsinki city area. The four main characters experience the controlled and repetitive daily cycle in an underground space under a strange curfew, when the need to communicate and cope with each other becomes a necessity for survival.
Short film and video installation will be exhibited in public spaces and city screens as well as the gallery exhibition will take place in Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary in December 2012.
The audiovisual parts of the project will be filmed in the underground spaces in Helsinki and are produced by Art Film Media Oy.
Sound installation
Sound installation provides the audience with small construction with a panoramic view over the landscape in the Helsinki city centre and an audio experience from the underground spaces in real time.
Photographic book
Publication consists of visual material from the Helsinki Underground video art work and sound installation, relevant articles, fictional short stories and interviews on the infrastructure and the subterrain of the city, urban planning, underground spaces and the mythical underworld.
Collaborators of the Helsinki Underground project are Helsinki City Rescue Department and Helsingin Energia.
Further information:
www.underground.fi
www.tuomaslaitinen.net
www.artfilmmedia.fi (Will be opened in spring 2012)
http://wdchelsinki2012.fi/ohjelma/2011-12-31/helsinki-underground
