Art Exchange
2004


an intervention in 7 Bars and Restaurants
in the neighbourhood of Kallio, Helsinki, Finland

One essential experience with contemporary art is the fact that it is different from the known. Getting used to art generally means, that the artwork does not pose a challenge anymore.

Stephan Kurr organized an exchange of artworks between different bars and restaurants situated in Helsinki’s neighbourhood of Kallio. Pictures hanging in one bar were exchanged by other ones from other participating bars, in terms of how they fit into.
The exchange took place for 10 days, as part of the Pimeä Art Festival of Kallio.

Participating Bars and exchanged pictures:

Ravintola Moinamoti: Indian restaurant, 1 print shows Nofretete;

Kioski Café Cassandra: Café, finish and Asian food, 1 watercolour shows Taiwanese house;

Ravintola Bullut: Turkish Indian restaurant, 1 oil painting, shows Leander tower in Istanbul;

Ravintola Pizzeria Nino: pizzeria, 2 prints show flowers, 1 print shows a Erich Heckel watercolour, 1 print shows the sea;

Ravintola Sankari: bar, 4 prints advertising finish brandy;

Café and Pub Matushka: bar, 2 oil paintings show Russian landscape, 1 print with angel, 1 light box with animated waterfall;

Ravintola Olympia: bar, pizzeria and Vietnamese restaurant, 4 pearlmut intarsia with crane motives, 2 prints show old-timer and New Yorker railway station