Colourful characters have been greeting people on the street on both sides of the pedestrian bridge between the Stoa cultural centre and the Itis shopping centre for decades. Over the years, the street art scene deteriorated so badly that residents contacted Deputy Mayor Paavo Arhinmäki. He found out what more could be done for the mural.
In the spring of 2024, Arhinmäki met Thierry Noir, who painted a mural on a pedestrian bridge, in Berlin, and suggested that the artist should restore his work, which had fallen into disrepair. Due to scheduling challenges, Noir suggested that perhaps the deputy mayor could take care of the restoration himself.
“Few people have even known that there is a work of art by a world-famous artist in Itäkeskus. Now that the work has been restored to its original colours, hopefully more people will notice it and the work will be a subject of pride in East Helsinki,” Arhinmäki says.
On Friday, August 23, the deputy mayor climbed the crane, grabbed the brush and began work. He was accompanied by street artist and youth worker Samuli Turunen and surface treatment student Lumi Lilja. The restoration work was completed on the same day, and now the traffic on Turunlinnantie is watched by newly painted characters.
The characters created by Thierry Noir, who works in Berlin, can be found in major cities around the world. In Helsinki, Noir's work can be admired not only in Stoa, but also in the lobby of Kino Engel and at the Cable Factory.
Noir's mural Let Us Be Your Mental Dentist, found in the Cable Factory's doorway, is Finland's first legal modern street art mural. Known as the Tuo Rakkautta & Anarkiaa (Bring Love & Anarchy) mural, this work was created at the invitation of the city in 1994, when Noir reportedly also made the work of Stoa – more spontaneously but with the blessing of the city
