During our recent visit to Helsinki, once we had visited the conventional tourist sites, we decided to seek out some of the city’s street art.
I’d read about a ‘graffiti wall’ just outside the city centre and walking there also gave us the opportunity to explore the urban suburbs. The walk was longer than we anticipated and we nearly gave up when we couldn’t find the site at the place indicated on our map. But we persevered, and eventually we found it.
The Helsinki suburb of Kalasatama is a former port and industrial area that is gradually being regenerated into one of the city’s up and coming cultural hubs. This on-the-rise area is home to a couple of trendy warehouse-style restaurants and designer offices as well as a circus skills rehearsal space. Trapeze practice anyone? There are big plans in place to further transform the area, with housing and more shops, but it won’t be complete until the early 2030s!
For the time being this is where you will find the Suvilahti Graffiti Wall, although it seems inevitable that at some point in the future it will be pulled down in the name of development.
An idea conceived in 2009, the wall was the first legal graffiti space in Finland. Originally a 100-metre long wall, the street art has spilt onto any available surrounding space – lamp posts, other walls and buildings, electric metre boxes and even the nearby skateboard rink.
We were expecting a brick wall but in fact, it’s made of plywood, making it feel more temporary. That was probably the original intention. We would guess that the wall is replaced every now and again to allow more artists to express their spray-paint skills in a legitimate environment.
This is the urban art on the graffiti wall when we visited Helsinki in June 2014.
If you prefer to view these images as a slide show, click the first photo and navigate through them using the arrows on the bottom right of the screen. There are thirteen photographs.
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I am impressed with the strength and character of this graffiti. What street artists can do with a few spray cans of paint never ceases to amaze me and the Helsinki artists must be among the best in the world. Terrific photos, as always. Ben
Thank you! We’re discovering more and more street art in unexpected places during our travels and it’s good to see that in many cases it’s being supported by local initiatives that channel it in a positive way.
Nice one. When I was in Helsinki, I didn’t see street art at all. It didn’t look like the city that would have it. But I guess I was wrong. (I blame it on the high snow^^.) Loved it all over Australia. Next time I’m in Finland, I will take a closer look.
Glad you enjoyed the post. This street art is a bit out in the suburbs and it did take a bit of effort to find it – in fact we almost gave up! I think snow would have certainly put us off!
How did you know about it? Did someone give you a tip? I totally love snow. Would have totally explored the streets more then had I had enough time. Maybe next time.
Mmm, I can’t remember now – I think it was mentioned on a map of Helsinki which we picked up at the hostel where we were staying.
Wow, what an amazing place. We didn’t know about this when we visited Helsinki a few years ago, otherwise we would have definitely checked it out! Good excuse to go back I guess!
Thanks for letting us know about it – We’ve pinned this to our Pinterest Street Art board!
Thanks so much for pinning us! 🙂
It was quite a walk from the city centre, so not the type of place you stumble on. Always good to have something on your “next time” list!
What’s the address?
It’s around about here on Google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/fBFoSujdgY12 and the nearest Metro is Kalasatama
The area was being regenerated when we were there so I don’t know how much it has changed or if the wall is still there. It was a very arty area though so hopefully there is still a creative space for street art. If you find it, I would be interested to know if the Suvilahti graffiti wall is still there.