Modern Times Forever (Stora Enso Building, Helsinki) is a 2011 film by Danish artists’ group Superflex. It is currently the second-longest film ever made, lasting 240 hours (10 days). The film shows how Helsinki’s Stora Enso headquarters building would decay over the next few millennia. The film was originally projected against the building itself.
Via the decaying image of Stora Enso’s headquarters, the work raises issues of climate change, urban planning, Finland’s industrial history, and changes in economic structures. The Stora Enso building is an important city landmark, whose style has prompted discussion ever since it was built. The building, referred to by locals as “the sugar cube,” was designed by Alvar Aalto and completed in 1962. Its clean white modernist exterior has been an object of love and hate ever since its completion.
The film was first shown in the Helsinki Market Square, where the Stora Enso building is located, on a 40m2 LED screen. In that context, one could see the original building while also watching it decay, moment by moment, in the film. The film was played for ten days non-stop, so that it could be viewed publicly, 24 hours a day, for the extent of the exhibition.
Picture Credit : Google
