Graffiti, posters, stickers or almost any other form of street art are not allowed in a city space. Potential painters are being followed and in some cases badly beaten by a certain security company. A man is arrested for taking a photograph of a train which had graffiti on it. The Academic Bookstore is asked not to sell graffiti magazines and the Museum of Contemporary Art is criticized for having graffiti exhibition. At worst graffiti painters are put to jail for over a year and they have to pay a compensation (over 100 000 euros) to the government.
This is what happened in Helsinki between 1998 and 2008 (and what is in some areas still happening) when the Public Works Department launched a project called Stop töhryille (Stop clutter, vandalism). The project meant zero tolerance for street art in Helsinki. City space became an ideological battlefield where two opposite forces clashed: city officials and their ideology about a safe and clean city and grass roots artists and their vision about a lively and multicultural city space. Every empty wall meant one more victory for the Public Works Department and people generally turned a blind eye to FPS Security´s violent methods. How did it happen?
Signs were already there in the early 1990s when public opinion started to change towards street art. When in the 1980s the graffiti community in Helsinki was communal and relatively small, in the 1990s graffiti had become a more common phenomenon. Painters also started to become more anarchistic. While the first generation of painters had very high moral codes and private property was left alone, these principles were broken when the number of graffiti painters grew in the early 1990s. At the same time, magazines started to publish critical articles about the phenomenon. But the most dramatic change happened in 1998 when the Stop töhryille project was launched. And this changed the landscape of Helsinki for years.
The Reasons behind the Stop töhryille project were ideological. City officials used the broken windows theory (by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling) in their decision making process. According to Wilson and Kelling, a broken window or graffiti in one part of the town will eventually lead to more serious crimes. Following this logic, graffiti must be absent from a city space. In fact, Helsinki adopted a “24 hour policy” which meant that every sticker, poster or graffiti was removed within 24 hours. In consequence, the city would be safer. For graffiti painters, street artists and regular citizens it became anything but such.
I myself remember that tense atmosphere in Helsinki even though it took me a while to understand the whole picture. Through my brother, who is an artist, I eventually came to know people who were personally affected by this zero tolerance politics in Helsinki. Their stories were frightening. People were being followed and they were arrested just because they looked like potential painters. Many young men were beaten by guards who in the end controlled security tapes so you couldn’t sue them. Policemen tried to get a painter´s girlfriend to talk by threatening that if she didn’t cooperate she couldn’t get in to any college. She was in jail for three days. Graffiti painters, if they were being caught, were sentenced to pay a large compensation and in some cases they had to serve jail time.
Even though this was happening in Helsinki, the general public didn’t know about it. Only few critical voices were raised by certain journalists and politicians. One of them was a young left-wing politician Paavo Arhinmäki. It took till 2004 when the Stop töhryille project finally became public knowledge when the so-called “let me love case” happened. Five young men were arrested for three days, police searched their homes and they were prosecuted for putting stickers all over Helsinki which stated “let me love”. This caused public outrage and a new kind of discussion started about city space and government control. Demonstrations were held. Slowly the general opinion started to turn in favor of the street artist.
In 2008 Stop töhryille project came to an end but it didn’t stop “zero tolerance for graffiti” in Helsinki. It took two more years until the city council finally made the decision that abolished zero tolerance. Paavo Arhinmäki was very active about this matter. In 2010 a legal graffiti wall was opened in Suvilahti, Helsinki. The place is very popular among street artist and actually now the area has become lively grass root art center where for example free concerts and workshops are also held. In 2011 Paavo Arhinmäki became Minister for Culture and Sport. As such, he has continued to be a spokesperson for graffiti painters. He has opened many graffiti exhibitions and demanded more legal places for graffiti painting.
In a last few years Helsinki has finally started to recover for all the harm the Stop töhryille project caused. The legal graffiti wall in Suvilahti has been a promising start. Nowadays the attitude towards street artists is much more positive. However, at the same time harsh methods against graffiti painters are still used. Young people are still convicted to pay compensations and serve time in jail. FPS Security is now part of a bigger company but they are still responsible for practical work in the streets. The Public Works Department has started a new project called Siisti stadi (Clean city). According to its spokesman, Siisti stadi tries to make Helsinki cleaner and safer.
Vilma Hakala, Finland
Gender Studies Department
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