Tuesday November 2nd: Honeycot and terrastella installed; all photos by Reino Koivula

Monday, October 25th, I take the first load to the main library yard: walls, trestles and roof support. Erkki stays in workshop with the roof frames to drill the missing holes – 170 of them, in 5.0 mm thick iron. This part of work may be the toughest of it all.
At library, Simo helps me to unload. Pekka and Eemeli from Italfalò come to install the gas heater, but fire inspection will have to wait until everything is done. 2011 Foundation security officer Esa Pärnä is encouraging as always, and Pekka also kindly reminds me to rest a little… such things matter more than one could think.
Having found the optimal spot to raise this building, the rest of the week is spent by fitting everything into place – first making the lower walls level on sloping ground by the help of wedges, then attaching them in the right angles. This is night work; I do it alone under a moon that is once more beginning to wane. Next day, Erkki and I raise the roof frames… and again: good cooperation is a most beautiful thing, a dance. Hyvin kaunis.
Attaching the doorpieces is also four-hand work (at least), so I get some help from those teenager guys from Iran and Afghanistan who use to hang around at the yard. Friday morning is a crucial moment: I remove the roof support. Now terrastella stands on its own.
Then fastening all loose pieces by 170 screws in those 170 holes… now this takes time, and doesn’t even work out well – despite Erkki’s coming to help – and by the end of the day I realize the ground support has changed too much. Replacing the wedges with pieces of cut wood has caused the whole thing to move, angles changing and straight line edges collapsing into curves – and so, the glassfibre pieces simply don’t fit anymore. I have to call Simo to bring the wedges back, and start all over again. Luckily, the library café is a warm spot in every sense – Stefano, the cafe owner, cooks Sicilian pasta and offers coffee, Daryl from Vancouver makes teriyaki with a Canadian touch of maple syrup, the limoncello cake is irresistible and everyone is friendly. And on Saturday, Esa passes by once more, telling me not to give up.
On Sunday, finally, tough lady Leila – one of the persons employed to guard our cots – joins me to fit in those last missing pieces, the clear star that stretches downwards from the rooftop. We spend seven hours in the damp and cold, and finally – it’s there. A passer-by tells me that the terrastella resembles a House of Dreams – well, it is a House for Listening, so why not.
Meanwhile, Reiska is more than busy with his own work, so no photos from this part of the process…

Monday, November 1st, the felt pieces and benches are installed and fire inspection is done. Visitors and friends help me translate “House for Listening” to several languages – Spanish, Czech, Finnish, Italian, Sicilian, Dari, Pashtun, Farsi – and write it on pieces of plywood, which I attach to the official signpole – adding Swedish and English. I light the fire and invite the teenager guys to share the warmth and some snacks, and Päivi from the City of Turku 2011 office joins us. Finally, Päivi helps me load the huge trestles on my trailer, before I leave for Stockholm with the night ferry.

During the same day, Reiska’s Honeycot is transported from Barker to the square by the cathedral and raised by the help of a crane lorry.

We made it.

The terrastella on Monday evening, Nov 1st; photo by Heli Lempa

Catch-up: during the last two weeks, Reiska and I have been working literally day and night – over-budget and over-time schedule – forsaking cooked meals more often than not, and sleeping a few hours (or minutes) when possible. Still, I could rest in the working process itself – largely thanks to the help and support offered by Matti and Erkki, the gentlemen of Terpol glassfibre company. Joining me in work, unfailingly doing the right thing at the right time, they embody the understanding of art as primary production and science of freedom*.
Everybody is an artist, and some very much so; my greatest reverence to you, gentlemen.

Reiska found some time to take pictures, despite his own hard work with the Honeycot. Here they are.

Darkness workshop at Barker, October 17th – 24th; all photos by Reino Koivula

*”So, first of all, we have art as the science of freedom, and as a consequence of this, we also have art as the primary production or as the original, underlying production for anything else. (…) I have to prepare myself throughout my life, conducting myself in such a way that no single moment is not given over to that preparation. (…) I must always have the presence of mind, the overview, the wider perspective, to perceive the overall context and set of forces.” (artist Joseph Beuys in dialogue with priest Volker Harlan; “What is Art?”, Clairview Books 2004)

Darkness workshop at Barker, October 4th – 13th; all photos by Reino Koivula

The chairs and benches of Simo Helenius may look simple, but sitting upon them makes you a queen, or king – sitting position is upright, yet relaxed; leaning your back to them, you feel the chest opening up and breath deepening. I had to ask Simo how to make them… upon which he produced three more for Terrastella, inbetween working with his own Bow.
One day, art student Josefiina Kiikka shows up. She did her summer project felting with me in July, and since then she has continued on her own. Now she brings two felted lampshades – a dark mouse and a white bird shape. Together with a tale, they too will come to stay in the cot.
In GRP moulding we proceed by steps, learning by trial and error… but time is running out.
How to handle the balance between quality, time and economy here? In addition to earlier support, Terpol company now offers professional help in glassfibre works, which I very gratefully receive.
On Thursday October 14th, Simo’s Bow cot is installed by Aura river.

The Bow installed by Aurajoki, and welding tracks on workshop floor; all photos by Reino Koivula

polyester works: Terrastella wall sheets and mould constructions for roof parts;
all photos by Reino Koivula

So, yesterday we turned the thermostat up to 18°C and finally started the GRP (glassfibre reinforced polyester) moulding. Carefully following the instructions of our tutor Matti Suominen, I laid out the sheets on flat plywood surfaces – three times waxed – then left them to cure for 24 hours. Today, the GRP sheets could be removed to fit into the iron frames.
The result is far above expectations; the material diffuses light much like Japan paper, and has a slight but distinct tint of its own. I find it beautiful – it will turn our cots into large lanterns.

Reiska’s clear polyester moulding; photo by Reino Koivula

The ten last days of September passed with the wink of an eye; again I’ve been bending armoury irons and attaching them to the frames with the help of Reiska and his welding set, making two large trestles for the raising of the cot, working out all those little necessary details… too involved with the material world to be present on Internet, and no problems in falling asleep at night.
Yesterday, a construction engineer visited us to check the stability and durability of our structures. QC passed for all three cots.
As most of the welding works are done by now, it is possible to start the moulding of glassfibre walls. Today is Polyester Day.

making glassfibre samples; photos by Reino Koivula

Sunday September 19th, by midnight, we finished the Terrastella iron frames in Sören’s boatyard. Another hour or so for bringing everything down and packing it on the trailer, then I had almost two hours’ sleep before leaving to the ferry… on Monday evening, I reached Turku and the Cots of Darkness workshop at Barker, the old factory site by Aura river. Reino Koivula and Simo Helenius have been working there since I last left in July – now Terrastella joins with the Honeycot and the Bow.

all photos by Reino Koivula, except the two showing Reiska himself at work;
I shot those.

For full documentation of the project, see the Cots of Darkness on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6689574&id=556631290&ref=fbx_album#!/group.php?gid=200151726024&ref=ts

Building the iron framework for Terrastella in Sören’s boatyard; all photos HHW.

From dazzling summer light by the Mediterranean to early autumn crispness of the Baltic region… instead of mirrorglass tiles, I now handle wool and iron again.
Terrastella construction work advances steadily, thanks to Sören’s skills and apt equipment. Good cooperation is a beautiful thing.

the Adriatic Table;
all photos by Reino Koivula,
except ‘carrying nomadic table 1’ by Raine Johnsson

The Nomadic University makes use of three characteristic kinds of artefacts; notebooks for reflection, the nomadic chairs for flexibility and a table for communication.

For the first oases of NUrope, Michelangelo Pistoletto created the Baltic and Mediterranean Tables – made from mirrorglass and shaped like maps of the seas. Since then, those two tables have taken turns to serve nomadic dialogue in several European cities.
However, during this oasis the Mediterranean Table stayed in Cittadellarte, Biella. In its place, and as an hommage to it, an Adriatic Table was created by the Zadar Nomads. The Zadar Museum of Ancient Glass hosted the workshop, and afterwards the table was carried to the former church of St Donat where we gathered around it for the last day’s programme.

Oasis completed, the University of Zadar received the table as a gift from NUrope.

Josefiina, Lena’s combing machine and rug # 2; all photos by Reino Koivula