Defensor Capitolii - The Memorial of the Hyrylä Garrison in Tuusula
The Hyrylä garrison in Tuusula was established 150 years ago. To celebrate the 150th anniversary, I was commissioned to design the memorial plaque of the garrison. The stylised memorial plaque depicts the different phases of the garrison’s history and it can be read from two directions.
Draft of the memorial Capitolii Defensor.
The 150 year long history of the Hyrylä garrison in Tuusula entails various chapters. The imagery of the memorial is inspired by these different phases in the garrison’s history depicting artillery, cavalrymen and bicyclists among other motifs. From today’s perspective, the horse artillery or bicycle battalion represent of how the warfare and arming have changed as nowadays the technologies and ways of arming differ significantly from those in the past.
Draft images and historical images behind the memorial.
The memorial consists of one piece, but like a playing card it can be viewed from two directions. It is located in the historical surroundings of Hyrylä, which is currently being developed into a residential area. The Minister of Defence Antti Kaikkonen published the memorial in the opening ceremony in summer 2021. The memorial will be relocated closer to the centre of the new neighbourhood as the construction works proceed. The map below depicts the current location of the work.
In the opening ceremony of the memorial plaque both the army representatives and police were present. Above some images I took in the opening and below my opening speech. Warm thanks to the Tuusula Art Museum’s staff, the active persons initiating the memorial project and to art coordinator Laura <3
Opening Speech 22.7.2021, in Tuusula
An artist can often freely express the topics and issues important to themselves through their work. For me a commissioned work is an opportunity to create a vision and interpretation of something that is important to someone else, to immerse myself in the topic or place and to learn from it. This work – the memorial of Hyrylä garrison – is exactly this kind of artistic position, a position of trust.
For me it was crucial that this work is not a memorial of war, but of a specific garrison. The garrison exist also in the times of peace. In its core is the act of building together – ultimately constructing and protecting peace together. It involves a lot of hard work, but also moments of comradeship.
I hope that in addition to the historical phases of the garrison, the memorial also transmits these thoughts and ideas. The memorial is detailed and its multiple details can be viewed up closely from different directions – this might take some time. I hope that the time the viewer spends with the work aids the viewer to grasp the time span that of the garrison too, the time it has existed here and all the events that this time has contained.
About the material – from the beginning I was asked to design a piece that will be positioned on the ground. This means it needs to sustain the changing weather conditions and outdoor environment. That is why metal was chosen as the material of the work. At first we thought of stainless steel, but with the Commissioner (Tuusula Municipality) we ended up choosing metal that can rust. In my view, the roughness of the rust fits well with the red-brick architecture of the garrison.
So if someone wonders how come the work is already rusty in the opening – it is the purpose. The idea is that with time the work will get rusty all the way. It will live and alter through this change in the material appearance. This perhaps adds another time dimension to the work.
This area will change drastically in the next few decades. I hope that through this memorial, the rich history of the place can be brought in to the present and it is carried in the future too.
Thank you.