Meet Lapinlahti people: Atso

I have been volunteering in “Lappari” incidentally since 2019, and more regularly since the start of this year. At the start I sometimes helped at the café in the main building, and got familiar with the sauna. Nowadays I am in charge for public sauna shifts every other Sunday. When I moved to Helsinki in 2019, I lived in Ruoholahti. Back then, the Lapinlahti park, cafe, and sauna which were close by quickly became an important place for spending my free time. I didn’t know many other people in Helsinki besides my colleagues, so I took up volunteering at first as a “hobby” and in order to meet new people.

At that time, the fate of Lapinlahti was in an upheaval (like it still is), and I wanted to do my part in defending an important urban space, atmosphere, and community. Volunteering in Lapinlahti has been one crucial part of putting down my roots in Helsinki.

The environment in Lapinlahti is amazing: the proximity of the water, rocks, trees, and the park as a whole. There are a lot of opportunities, spaces and events where you can spend time alone or with people, without consumer culture setting the pace. Lähde sauna, which is one of the oldest saunas in Helsinki, is small and atmospheric. Its dressing room has old wooden couches that date back to the hospital times. It’s worth it to visit, for example on the public shifts on Thursdays or Sundays!

I also currently have a exhibition in Lapinlahti called “Uumen” (Depths). You can find it until 3rd of September in the Kammio gallery next to the main gate, which is the hospital’s old mortuary. The piece in the space consists of sounds I recorded with a hydrophone under the water in Lapinlahti, as well as items that Akira Ahola and Janne Kaarla have dived from the bottom of the Lapinlahti bay. The piece showcases what it sounds like under the surface of the bay, and all the things that end up at the bottom of the sea due to human activity.

The exhibition can be seen and heard from outside Kammio gallery 15.8.-3.9. around the clock (except for occasional maintenance breaks).
You can take part of taking care of the bay and the sea on Baltic Sea Day, Thursday 31st of August, where we will be cleaning the Lapinlahti shores together.