Flowers Against Loneliness
Coming to central Helsinki in February … a 30 square meter art installation created entirely from fresh, rescued* flowers and greens.
Can you picture it?
On 15 February 2021, the Flowers Against Loneliness project (FAL, for short) will take shape in the central event space in Kamppi Helsinki.
FAL is an initiative created to raise awareness about the issue of loneliness in our community, and to discuss what we can do about it.
The striking visual appeal of the installation will attract the attention of thousands — attention we will leverage to engage with the public around the issue of loneliness. And, because flowers are a universal symbol of human connection, they provide the ideal setting to confront loneliness by bringing us together.
Though loneliness is a familiar theme for all of us, it affects some segments of the population disproportionately. This 2017 report from Statistics Finland links loneliness and social exclusion closely, and shows that low-income people are especially at-risk. The elderly also report high rates of loneliness, with 35% of the elderly population in Finland reporting feeling lonely often or most of the time.
Finnish Mental Health Association MIELI describes the experience of newcomers — especially refugees and asylum-seekers — to Finland as being especially fraught with loneliness. Worryingly, a recent report by Yle also says that 20% of ninth-graders in Finland report being lonely.
And this year the theme of loneliness hits home more closely than ever, after the novel coronavirus pushed many of us into months of quarantine and isolation.
The solution to loneliness rests with each one of us, but what can we do about it? The work to address and reduce loneliness is championed by a variety of public entities and private organizations in the Helsinki region which provide opportunities for people at risk of loneliness to connect with their communities. FAL has partnered with a few of them to conduct public outreach during the February event.
What better way to combat loneliness, and the mid-winter cold and dark, than with the joy and beauty of flowers. Won't you join us?
When: Monday, 15 February, 2021
Where: Kamppi Helsinki (central circle event space)
Who: for more information, contact flowersagainstloneliness@gmail.com
Who is behind Flowers Against Loneliness?
FAL is produced by FloweRescue and friends. FloweRescue ry is a Helsinki-based nonprofit association with a mission to address and spark dialogue about the issue of flower waste, and to connect people through the beauty and joy of flowers. Two of the FloweRescue co-founders, Kati Mayfield and Minna Mustapää, are coordinating the production of FAL in collaboration with Mafer Morante — former Executive Producer at SLUSH — and Kalle Oja, a creative carpenter who specializes in contemporary art installations.
*Rescued flowers are those which — because of damage or age — cannot be sold at full price by wholesalers and florists, and often end up in the bin. But they can be retrieved and cleaned up and used for all sorts of wonderful things, from donation bouquets to art projects and beyond!
And the flowers we rescue for Flowers Against Loneliness will be re-purposed again after the installation, by the Design Meets Biomaterials course from Aalto University's CHEMARTS department.
