Friday, November 21, 2008

Turku Cathedral


Some Finnish cities pay bounties to private security firm employees for putting young men into hospital on suspicion of 'defacing' grey concrete walls in industrial areas. Meanwhile, some unelected official had license to decorate the 700 year old "mother church of the Lutheran Church of Finland, the country’s national shrine" with this elegant period piece of a litter bin. Thousands of tourists photograph it every year. Aesthetics is a matter of selective vision. We see what we want to see.
On the other hand, any attempt of adapting its looks to the church's 14th century exterior might actually hamper its invisibility. People would take pictures of it to share the joke with friends back home. The wrong joke, most likely. People in the 14th century recycled even horse droppings...

2 comments:

  1. Mie ne nyt oikein näe... onko se pönttö pultattu seinään? Maftavaa.

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  2. On. Eivät kai italialaiset pulttaisi roskista Michelangelon Taavetin sokkeliin. Tai no, kun sikäläinen rakennusurakoitsija törmää työmaallaan muinaismuistoihin, siellä aletaan painaa hiivatisti ylitöitä...

    And in English:
    Yes, that bin is bolted into the 700 year old stone wall. Imagine one bolted to Michelangelo's David's base... But then again, Italy is so riddled with history that running into Roman remains on a building site probably means that workers will get plenty of overtime...

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