Gestures
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Mattolaituri (Carpet Pier) was located in an urban forest, by an overgrown river, in a nature reserve just a stone's throw from Mikkeli Market Square. Educational philosopher Gert Biesta (2017, 38, 44, 86) talks about a gesture of pointing out and the pedagogy of attention; how, by pointing out, you say that there is something good, important, or meaningful in the world, something worth paying attention to. Against the backdrop of the war-based history of my hometown, Mattolaituri (Carpet pier) can be seen not only as ‘a gesture that enables encounters’ but also as ‘gesture of directing attention’, through which I have pointed towards the interfaces between the urban environment shaped by man and the natural environment shaped by the Ice Age.
As a place of memory, the carpet pier does not tell of painful losses or collective traumas, but rather of a cozy place of activity that has brought several generations together. The river, as a place of memory, on the other hand, gives a hint of time and events beyond historiography and words. What remains of the past is the feeling of humans and non-humans who have lived and worked there and who have participated in the construction of both shared and personal memories.
Not only has humankind shaped the course of the river, but the river itself has also shaped the landscape, the ecosystem and us humans. The transition from the shore path through the protective branches to the Mattolaituri (Carpet pier) enabled a shift into the sensory reality of the passerby. On the water, surrounded by dense shoreline vegetation, the Carpet Pier allowed one to feel a part of the micro-level life of the river ecosystem, which can easily be missed by a busy passerby. We must accept that we do not have complete access to the world of other species and that not all the secrets of nature are revealed to us, but "we can again and again be entranced by the richness of life and focus on keeping the walls of our sensory reality porous." (Keto 2022, 155–156)
Although I didn't advertise my artwork, and didn't specifically invite people to see it, social media showed that the pier was visited by many people. I saw photos of people spending time on the pier; fishing, sunbathing and eating snacks. This artwork also made many people nostalgic and made them reminisce about the summer days they used to spend at carpet piers when they still existed and could be used to wash carpets. At the end of the summer, I dismantled the piece. Even after dismantling it, I received messages from people asking why the pier could not remain there permanently, as it had become an important place for so many.
Through memories, we can read things about the landscape that no longer exist there. There has been life around Finland's numerous carpet piers, and through their existence and memories they talk about society, its structure, and the ways it has changed. Carpet piers were part of the landscape of my childhood. Their disappearance indicates a change in our relationship with nature and an increase in environmental awareness. We understand that human actions can bring about drastic alterations to ecosystems. In all its nostalgia, the pine-scented communal pier is also a kind of monument to destruction.
