Väriaattori / Colourator

The environmental artwork Colourator is located in a wooded park next to the church in Myllypuro. It is a civil defence shelter ventilation shed whose walls were covered with colourful mosaics in 2000. The work was part of a suburban project designed to enhance the attractiveness of the suburbs. The work was designed by Pauli Ahopelto, a member of the Aikarauta (‘Time iron’) group from the Art School Maa. The reason Ahopelto chose to site the work at the concrete ventilation shed was that the structure is in such sharp contrast with its natural surroundings.

In the realisation of the piece, he was assisted by three other members of the group, Tero Halonen, Valtteri Kivelä and Jaakko Kuntsi. Each member designed one mosaic wall of the rectangular building. The palettes reflect the passage of the sun, with the colours of morning found on the east wall, day on the south wall, evening on the west wall, and night on the north wall.

The planning of the Myllypuro art trail began in 1999 in cooperation with the Art School Maa. Colourator was the first work to be completed for the trail, and was followed by two other pieces created by students from the school, Spirit of the Woods (2001) and Escorts (2004).The work was produced collaboratively with the Suburban Project of the City of Helsinki, the Urban project of the European Union, the Street and Park Division of the Helsinki Public Works Department, the City of Helsinki Cultural Office and the Helsinki City Rescue Department.

The work doesn’t belong to the City of Helsinki’s art collection, which is managed by HAM.