Kylän vanhin

Kylän vanhin (The Village Elder) is a Permanent Public Art Work situated in the Quiet Room of the Meilahti Bridge Hospital, Helsinki. The room is for the use of both patients and staff, serving as an open space that can be used spontaneously. The Quiet Room is also used by the hospital's pastor for marrying terminally ill patients. What kind of thought or mood to bring to such a special space through an artwork?

Walking in nature, one’s smallness compared to the size, continuity and ancientness of the surrounding nature feels at times relieving. One’s mindset takes on new dimensions. The deep time of the rocks that have existed already before humankind, concretises the experience possibly the best.

Kylän vanhin was inspired by the bedrock of Helsinki. Stones up to 1.9 billion years old have witnessed various eras in the past of what is now Finland’s capital: volcanoes, the Ice Age, tectonic plate movements and the rhythms of human generations. Kylän vanhin consists of two parts. The painting in the Quiet Room depicts a rocky outcrop under spring snow. It was painted on glass using pigments ground from stones collected in Helsinki. Some of the stones and pigments are on display in the glass case outside the room.