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| View from the boat photo by Lotta Petronella |
The first visit of Nomeda and Gediminas coincided with the first glorious summer days of the year. Together with the artist Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen we left from Turku harbour in blazing sunshine on a military boat. Commander Tapio Maijala took us on a guided tour of the archipelago, with the first stop by the army base of Gyltö in Korpo, soon to be partly closed down. Riding through mirror-still seas we visited also the outer islands of Jungfruskär and ???, both with military history yet now part of the national park.
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| From Jungfruskär to Utö photo by Lotta Petronella |
Our destination was Utö, which up until 2005 had a large army base. Its closure has had a huge impact on the local community, which now has turned to tourism as well as invites families to move to the remote island for a gap-year or two, in order to keep the little school alive. In Utö we learned more about the development of the local community from Kalle Sjöberg and Hilkka Bergman from the Utö island commitee and regional museum. Hanna Kovanen guided us around the island and. We were also invited aboard as one of the pilots was taken out to a foreign tanker to guide it through the treacherous waters of the archipelago.
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| Outside Utö on the pilotboat photo by Lotta Petronella |
In Korpo Nomeda and Gediminas were impressed by the project the local school had done with the marin biologist Christoffer Boström (Korpoström, Åbo Akademi). They also learned about the activities of the biosphere reserve from Katja Bonnevier. The visit ended with a dinner in Lanterna together with the local artists involved in CAA, Sussi Henrikson, Pia Rousku, Anna Nyreen and the CAA producer Micaela Jansson.
