While I was constantly moving within the city yesterday, I am sitting today between 7am and 7pm on a small taboret in the streets and let the movement of Pori pass me by.
Photo: Julia Stein
While I am changing places I do not have an aim to reach, so I am just walking without a target. When I see an interesting place, I just sit down. Till the last moment I try to avoid to be on the same streets than yesterday. I am sitting in front of the Museum of Modern Art, on the board-walk from the river Kokemäenjoki, under an eaves from a shopping centre, in small parks, at different street corners, between and on different parking spaces, in front of different houses on pedestrian ways where the sun is shining and in front of shop windows as long as the shops are empty right now, on the old cemetery of Pori 'Vanha Hautausmaa' and in front of the water tower. At the end of the day I am sitting again in the pedestrian zone, across from the ice cream parlour, which looks like the heart of Pori for me in this moment. During the day I encountered mostly women on different levels. More direct than yesterday they start talking about me and my action, their facial expression reveal a bigger lack of understanding than yesterday, but some women also smile at me. The encounter with men are less than yesterday. At the end an old woman comes to me and ask: “Are you a monument?” We start talking for approximately 10 minutes.
Already in the morning I perceive that there are workers in the city who put up flags on the flagpoles. So I decide that this is the right time to create my picture about communication gaps between different cultures today. This picture is set up for 3 hours (between 1pm and 3pm) as a statement in front of two culturally-rooted sites (each 1:30 hour). I do not believe that it is possible to understand a foreign culture entirely, if you are not born in this culture. Out of my mouth comes a tape which was recorded 1973 with traditional Finish music. Afterwards I followed the already mentioned action.
Photos: Pia Euro
