Katja Muttilainen: The ugliest place in the city - Case Jyväskylä
Lighting an ugly place visible and transform the area. A concept.
Are there ugly places, and what is an “ugly” place? Is there something you wish to see in a different light in a city?
During this process, light artist Muttilainen collected suggestions of possible ugly places through a public survey, interpreted the residents' responses, selected the location, chose the implementation method, and created a light art installation at the chosen site. The light art was strongly site-specific, and based on the survey results and linked to the history of the location (past travellers home, and now homeless day centre). The set-up phase usually included a lot of communication with the area users, in Jyväskylä with homeless people. In Jyväskylä the lighting colours were complementing each other; deep blue created a background for for warm homely light bulbs and "home yard" flower arrangements.
The "Ugly place" light artwork is a direct comment to the surrounding environment, but raised awareness of ugliness and provided information to city development as well as entertainment to citizens. It was a starting point of a fruitful discussion: Can an ugly place be seen differently, and what are the possibilities?
