Les Enfants de Metropolis

2017
, b/w Super8 Film / video, duration 00:02:45

Concept, camera, editing: Minna Suoniemi
Sound design: Alpo Nummelin

The piece depicts young men using the urban space creatively, doing Parkour in a construction site in Itä- Pasila, the 70ies housing area in Helsinki. The site, near my home, had interested me for some time; the temporary constructions under the walking bridges created a forest of poles in the famous asphalt jungle of Pasila, Helsinki.
The title of the video refers to the 1927 German expressionist film Metropolis by Fritz Lang. Metropolis
is a portrayal of a futuristic urban dystopia and depicts the social crisis between workers and the capitalist owners. With the title I want to create a play with the urban environment and the leisure act of the boys. Creative use of urban space, when not commercial, is often treated as something illegal, disturbing or threatening. It’s not useful or productive, so it’s seen as unnecessary. In the video, the boys take over the urban space and make it their space again.