United Buddy Bears - The Art of Tolerance

The bears have taken over the Senate Square in Helsinki! All together 142 bear statues have emerged in Senate Square on Sept the 1st from Berlin to share together a message of tolerance. Each statue represents one country confessed by the UN, and is illuststrated by an artist from that country. So every statue tells a story about it's own country, and together as one piece of art they tell how diverse the world is. The idea is that in order to undesrtand each other and live peacefully together, we need to know each other better. So each bear statue is like an embassador of it's own country.

Each artist had got a similar statue to work on, two meters high bear with hands up position. The assignment has been to illustrate it so that it reflects something about her/his country. The variation between the implementations was vast, just like I expected it to be. The cultural differencies were rich in colours, techniques and in ways to perceive the bear as an object. Some artists had handled the bears as animals, worn them in clothes and painted expressions on their faces, as some artists had chosen a more abstract approach to the theme. I must say I in general liked more of the abstract implementations, I found the bears worn in national costumes a bit boring and self-evidential. But there were also interesting  and creative ways to communicate about values and conditions of one's country. Here's some of my pickings:

Albanian bear:

Austrian bear was a musician:

Bolivian bear:

Bulgarian bear:

Canadian bear:

Chilean bear:

Spanish bear:

South African bear:

Georgian bear:

Indian bear:

Italian bear:

Japanese bear:

Cambodian bear:

Bear from Cape Verde:

Croatian bear:

Cuban bear had attitude:

A golden bear from Myanmar:

The bear from Paraquay held a crocodile:

Polish bear:

French bear:

Saudi Arabian bear:

Swiss bear:

Senegalese bear:

Hungarian bear:

Turkish bear:

Swedish bear:

Even South and North Korean bears were peacefully in Senate Square, hand in hand:

After I saw the exhibition I got to wonder why was a bear chosen as the object? Is it maybe because it is an international animal that lives almost all over the world? Or can the explanation be found in the symbolic meaning of a bear? I found out that bear has many meanings in different cultures. Bear can be easily associated with Russia, but it is also a meaningful animal in many other countries. It is the national animal of Finland, too. So bear is related to both east and west. In Finland a bear symbolises woods and forest. Bear can be also seen as a symbol of a gender: it can symbolise masculinity as well as feminity. A masculine bear has been seen as a symbol of cruelty, power, courage and durability. In gay world "a bear" is seen as an attractive male type. On the other hand bear can be seen as a mother god's symbol animal. Maternity and feminity are indicated in bear's warm fur, earth brown colour and the way it takes care of it's cubs. Bear has also been seen to symbolise lonelyness, isolation from others, fertility and the circle of life. Bear has been ultimately  a symbol of life, death and re-birth. In springtime, when bear wakes up from it's winter sleep, also the nature comes alive. And in the winter when bear is asleep, also the nature rests to be born again. Other meanings associated to bear are introspection, healing, change, spiritual interconnection, metamorphosis, reincarnation, shamans and whiches, mysticalness and mysteriousness, predicion, defence, revenge and wisdom. From these meanings can be found some explanation to why bear was chosen to represent living together in peace hand in hand, although some of the meanings of  a bear were contrary to the message intended (togetherness and peace). I enjoyed the visual messages in the bears sent from different parts of the world, but looking at the bears through the thought of what a bear symbolises gives me a new interesting perspective to the exhibition.

House of Eco's Autumn Event in Cable Factory

House of Eco is a joint venture of Finnish companies that sell ecological products via internet. The mission of House of Eco is to make it easier for us customers to make ecological choises. House of Eco operates mainly in the internet (http://www.houseofeco.fi/), but it also arranges events occasionally. Tonight (Sept 15) they arranged an autumn event in the Cable Factory in Helsinki. The event was about giving the customers a chance to get to know the products and meet the designers as well as to buy the products. 5 % of the sales made during the evening were donated for charity. Here are my pickings from the event.

Sanna Rinne

Sanna Rinne was a special quest in the event, presenting her fashion designs mostly made of cutting waste materials. All of the products are made of strips of fabric sewn together as a garment. Sanna told me that she sews all the products by herself! She has an education for textile design as well as fashion design, which makes the materials specially important to her. I personally found the products very impressive.Take a look at the shirt Sanna is wearing in the image below, isn't it gourgeous! You can find out more about Sanna's designs in address http://www.sannarinne.com/.

Beibamboo

Another guest in the event was Beibamboo, a company that has brought a whole new children's wear concept to the Finnish fashion market. Beibamboo does not only sell, but it also rents baby clothing for ecologically councious parents! The idea is to recycle clothing, instead of buying a product you can rent it and return it after the use. I can imagine it's a great consept for families with children as they don't have to worry about re-selling the used clothing that children have grown out of. As the name implies, the products are made of bamboo, a very ecological material that is well suitable to baby wear due to it's good qualities such as softness and good washing abilities (it can be washed in 60 degrees). It's also antibacterical and transfers moisture from the skin. The products are designed to be comfortable to wear and easy to put on a baby. All the rented products are washed in a professional cleaner and all the stains are removed before delivery. Nina Ignatius, the founder of the concept (see picture below), told me that all the products are designed and sewn in Finland. And the cost of renting? 1 € per one week. As the slogan of Beibamboo says: You can rent happiness...

Punainen Norsu

Another interesting ecological design brand is Punainen Norsu (http://www.punainennorsu.com/index.php), who's products has been seen on this blog before in the Turku Design Now -posting. Punainen Norsu's products are adorable retro-styled clothing mainly for chldren. Some of the products are made of genuine old retro fabrics, and they are sewn in Finland, except for the Hedgehog -series which is sewn in Estonia. Punainen Norsu is designed by Helena Opas, and she told me that as a novelty she had designed a border lining for the cartboard package of Finnish maternity aid packing, which can be used as a baby's first bed. Just take a look at these super-cute patterns:

Enne

Enne Design (http://www.enne.fi/) is also a company that designs ecological children's wear. Enne's products are made of organically grown cotton and printed and sewn in Finland. Enne Design's products look soft, sensitive and child-like.

Boutique Minne

Boutique Minne (http://www.boutiqueminne.com/) is a vintage boutique situated in Turku. They sell genuine vintage clothing, but they also sew new products and fix products to be made-to-measure. I loved the dresses and jewellery they had on display. Thake a look at the beige dress below, it had details e.g. from an old watch!

Humbugi

Humbugi has also been presented in this blog befor (see Lasipalatsi Design Markets -posting), but let's see what wonderful and new they had to offre this time:

These cute silver leather bags are made of material that has been used as an upholstery in an elevator of a hotel in Moscow!

A Speciality Product:

Ipanajamit is a children's wear boutique that sells many ecological brands on address www.ipanajamit.com. I payed attention to these colourful bags by Coll.part. I found out that they are made of recycled materials and produced according to Fair Trade's standards. The products are made of plastic bags used by fishermen all over Cambodia! The plastic bags find a new life as hats, bags, purses, baskets etc. All the products are made by Fair Trade organisations in Cambodia. The aim of the company is to support social development projects and to produce first quality products. On of the projects supports women in need of help ofering them professional education and a possibility to their children to go to school, too. The other project helps the victims of mine fields and polio patients. The artistic manager of the colourful world of Coll.part is Nina Raeber. A purhase for a good cause, I would say!

 

About the event

The event was a very warm-spirited, and I enjoyed very much learning about new ecological design brands. What I liked about the display in the event was that all the companies had equal fixtures for display. The desks were made of used cartboard boxes, and the racks were made of birch branches painted white. The ecological philosophy was present in the fixtures as well! I also liked the fact that the companies had carefully selected the products they wanted to present, and the displays were OK because they were not too full.

The event was not only about selling the products, there was also an espresso bar and photo shootings that people were able to watch in a "behind the scenes" -kind of way (see the picture above).

About the assortment of House of Eco, I payed attention that many of the companies sold products for children, but hopefully in the future there will be more ecological products for fashionable women as well. I also hope that the event was a success for the companies that attented it. I didn't see any advertisements about the event anywhere, so I do hope that the crowds foud their way to the world of ecological design products!