Arch

Arch by Taneli Rautiainen (b. 1983) and Anssi Pulkkinen (b. 1982) is a fragment of a bridge that rests on top of two concrete columns at a height of about 8.6 metres. The bridge is built atop a rocky outcrop to connect the buildings of the primary and secondary schools in Vesala. The artwork can be seen as referring to an incomplete structure, to the birth of something new or as a trace of the past. The bridge is completed in the imagination. It is unattainable, like an idea or an ideal. The cross section of the bridge reminds the viewer of the columns and beams in ancient ruins. Its vertical, upward-reaching form finds a resonance in the horizontal lines of the school building. The work is rooted in its environment while also aspiring elsewhere – to a place yet unknown.

The artists say: “The unfinished bridge is a metaphor for continuous learning. The path of education takes children through the years at school and builds a foundation for lifelong learning. The bridge can also be seen as a bond between different groups. Bridge-building is a metaphor for a process that brings people together and produces interaction.”

The work was produced under the Percent for Art programme, and it belongs to the collection of the City of Helsinki, managed by HAM Helsinki Art Museum.