Mattolaituri (Carpet Pier)
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Mattolaituri (Carpet Pier) was a site- specific temporary wooden construction, located on the bank of the Pankajoki River in the small city of Mikkeli, Eastern Finland, during summer 2023. The artwork was a sort of a wooden narrative or a negation of a monument; a memory-bound sculpture, pondering how memory and materials intertwine. It was built on top of the demolished structures of an old, disused carpet pier. The support of the old pier, the railings, the surface boards, and the wooden carpets were made of recycled wood. The artwork was not advertised or explained, nor were ans audience or spectators specifically invited to visit it. The aim was for it to be found by passers-by on the riverbank, as if by accident.
In addition to the wooden structures, the artwork also included a sound element that contained memories of the river from residents of the area. This element was found through a QR code and could be listened to on one´s own smart device.
Sound element of the work, transcribed and translated roughly into english:
When I was a child, we lived in a blue wooden house brought from Terijoki, Karelia, near here, in Jokikatu. We lived there with grandma and grandpa and Aunt Aili. It had been my father's and grandfather's childhood home. When we moved into the house there was still a laundry here by the river. I somehow have a memory of going to the laundry with my grandma, but it may just be a fake memory born from old stories and photographs. Now that laundry no longer exists, and our house has been demolished a long time ago as well.
But I did go to this river bank with my grandma to wash the carpets. I have washed many litres of soap and slag to the bottom of the river; man-made chemicals and secrets hidden under carpets. I feel a bit guilty, cause this river is now so eutrophic and overgrown. There have been many other washing places here. And there have also been swimming spots here. Many have recalled how they have swam here. I was not allowed to come here alone to the beach. My mom had lost one of her childhood friends here. She drowned on the other side of street next to the old playground. At that time there was a strong current, now this water hardly flows at all.
But I did play on these slopes, and I am told that my father and his brothers did too. My father, told me that there had been a wood impregnating factory on the opposite shore, and when they had played there, and sat down on those impregnated trees, his trousers had burned out. War general Mannerheim also sometimes rode on the opposite shore with his horses, there were his training grounds.
Last summer, when there were record-breaking heat spells and, according to the newspapers, the worst drought in five hundred years, various rivers dried up all around the world. At the time, it was reported that old monuments, hunger stones and for example statues of Buddha were found at the bottom of them. It's interesting to wonder what could be found at the bottom of this river, and what all this river has seen here. After all, it has been flowing on here since the Ice Age, ten thousand years. I have heard rumours that someone has come home from a second world war with his weapons, and his mother has thrown the weapons to the bottom of this river.
I often see in my dreams, that I stand on that hill and look down here at the river. Sometimes in those dreams I also drift with a self-made raft-like contruction along the current. In my dreams, this river always flows from right to left in the wrong direction, as if towards the starting point...
The location of the artwork in a nature reserve set certain conditions for its construction. Permission for the work had to be obtained from the local authorities, and the permit was conditional: permanent structures in the river were prohibited, as well as any alteration or damage to vegetation. The artwork was made from (recycled) thermally modified pine. Thermal modification is an ecological and non-toxic way to increase the weather resistance of wood.
All the different parts of the artwork were prepared beforehand in my studio during spring 2023. I sawed, measured and painted the materials, and the entire construction had to be carefully planned because it was not possible to get close to the site by car and all the materials for the work had to be transported by foot along paths down to the shore.
At the beginning of September 2023 the artwork was dismantled, and the materials were recycled again.
