Boxing Havis Amanda!
Magicians and illusion have always attracted my attention. I am not talking about the ones pulling a rabbit from an empty hat, but the ones staging incredible illusions or creating effects of seemingly impossible happenings to trick our perception. I am a big fan of David Copperfield, one of the most famous illusionists of our times, and admire his show making the Statue of Liberty disappear. If you google it, you will find thousands of results about his tricks. What about his motivation? What was the reason behind Copperfield’s decision to make the Statue of Liberty vanish? What kind of challenge is that? Against what? Why is this attempt to make a statue, listed in the world heritage of UNESCO, disappear, even for a short while, so fascinating for people? Would it be because we see ourselves as individual owners of the tangible elements of our shared social existence? I realized that monuments and public sculptures have been niggling me more than I am aware of, and fortunately I am not the only person bothering herself with those questions. This became evident when I had a chance to see Manta Hotel of Helsinki.
Presented by Helsinki City Art Museum and Helsinki Festival as a joint project, Hotel Manta of Helsinki was a one-room hotel, the coolest place to stay overnight in the middle of the city. The work of the Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi, being not only an eye-catching event of the festival programme, also offered its guests an opportunity of sharing their beds with Havis Amanda. Beautiful Havis Amanda (in Finnish Havis Amanda or just Manta), the statue by sculptor Ville Vallgren stands more than a century in the Market Square of the capital of Finland. Nishi’s Hotel Manta that was open from 15 August to 12 October, 2014, in my opinion, was a most exciting experiences; totally crazy, a bit absurd.
The room was available for booking per night and open as an exhibition for visitors daily from 11:30 am to 5:30 pm. Nishi who is keen on creating private space or home-like feeling around a public sculpture, monument or part of a building, constructed a 40 m2 room where Amanda rises in the middle of king-size bed. The room, providing private bathroom and facilities of any luxury hotel, was furnished with authentic Finnish products; wall-paper inspired by characters from the national epic Kalevala and Artek design modern tables.
Not surprisingly, this provocative work of art, turning a public statue into a private experience for hotel guests and an exhibition for ticket holders resulted in a heated debate among Helsinkiers. I should digress here, just to explain how this charming lady is important for the inhabitants of the city. She is symbol of the capital and stays in the centre of the local May Day (in Finnish: Vappu) tradition, the biggest public celebration of Finland. The “crowning” of Havis Amanda by putting a traditional student’s cap on the statue, is usually witnessed by more than 20.000 people and kicks-off the event every year. So, in a few words, hiding her away must be a tough decision to make. Recalling of outrage happened in 1908 when the nude Havis Amanda was unveiled, Erik Söderblom, Director of the festival, in his own illusionary explanation states “In those days letting her stay there was a provocation. Now the provocation was taking her away. It is funny how something that became invisible because it always was there again becomes visible by making it invisible by putting it into a box. Our aim with this operation was all in all to give the citizens of Helsinki a possibility to rediscover their city.”
Yet, during a friends’ gathering I found myself in the middle of a fierce discussion as soon as I mentioned that I booked the room of Hotel Manta. One of my friends was against that pay-stay experience. Although he accepted that the artistic idea was stunning, it should, according to him, have been free of charge. The guests who wished to stay in the hotel should instead have been selected by a free lottery. From his own point of view he might be right, but the whole idea hit me much more deeply. It triggered different questions in my mind, such as “who owns the city?” or more specifically “who is the owner of the hundreds of statues standing in the squares of any city?” Are they property of the municipalities or of the community? If we possess them, why do we ignore them until they are hidden away from our sight? Whatever answer you give, initiating such a discussion is something arts must practice. This is why I loved Hotel Manta of Helsinki. I enjoyed the room for a night and slept next to the proud lady, enjoying with her the spectacular view opening onto the port.
(Photos of courtesy of Helsinki Festival, more photos click on flickr)