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- I must confess, that this didn't go as planned.
27 year old office worker Kimmo disagrees: "Well now you get a
realistic picture, what urban exploration is" Seriously, not this
boring?
- We are standing at the gravel area of Kyläsaari. The wind is cold and
next to us goes a wire-netting fence and on the other side is the old
water purification plant and a sign, that warns about camera
surveillance. Further away, the recycling center can be seen.
"Although we are not getting in, it's still a some kind of an
experience to stand here" Yes, yes...
- Kimmo is into the urban exploration, or urban adventure, it's a matter
of taste which name you use. It's a hobby where people venture into the
deserted and abandoned buildings: houses, saws, silos, bunkers. The
first place that Kimmo visited, was a villa in Järvenpää. "The
doors were locked and windows intact, so I couldn't get in". At
first, Kimmo didn't know that the hobby was called urban exploration. He
just visited the buildings. About a year ago he finally heard about
urban exploration. The hobby besides the adventure aspect, is
documenting the history of culture and nearly everyone who's into this
hobby, carries camera, which captures the mysterious atmosphere of the
places.
- Urban explorer does not destroy the places. One of the reasons why we
don't get in now. I suggest of climbing over the fence, but my
suggestion doesn't get any response. It would be wrong, if you cannot
get into the place with civilized way, the place can be left alone.
Kimmo doesn't like the graffiti's and condemns the hooliganism.
"These kids are the future leaders and they are smashing these
places. When they one day get to decide our matters, they still have the
urge to destroy everything", Kimmo says. "You cannot protect
everything, but something ought to be saved for the future
generations". A lot of interesting stuff can be found from these
places, but the ethical code of urban explorer prohibits to take
anything away from the site. "I get a picture of those items. If I
would take something with me, I couldn't keep a straight face when
talking something about ethics". So what is that attracts to these
place, it's most likely not just the pure desire to document history of
culture? "Curiosity" Says Kimmo. He finds new places from
newspaper and from books. "Sometimes I just go for a walk and might
stumble on to something interesting. Finding the places, is part of the
fun". The adventure can also be scary and that's also part of the
attraction. "When I take up my camera, everything else however is
forgotten". Urban exploration isn't directly about winning one's
fears. Kimmo is emphasizing strongly about the documentation and the
need to protect places.
- It's obvious, that there's a danger of getting hurt or getting caught
in urban exploration. When venturing at the Alakiventie in Myllypuro,
the alarms in the abandoned apartment started to ring and the security
guards appeared. The neutral and press photographer appearance of Kimmo,
fooled the guards. "They just asked that have I seen anything and I
said that no and kept on moving". "Urban exploration might be
against the law, but it certainly isn't against moral. I would like to
see the police, who's going to write me a ticket for this". Survival
and extreme sports are now the big thing. The people who are into those
kind of hobbies, are considered the Peter Pan generation, people who do
not want to grow up. There's similar features in the people who are into
urban exploration. "When people reach a certain age, they want to
stay at the sofa" Says Kimmo and admits that he doesn't belong to
the people, who spend most of their time on the sofa. "However, I
would not call this an extreme sport. Of course visiting abandoned
factory in Estonia is an rare experience, but if you go there with the
attitude, that this is now an extreme thing, you get killed".
- Kimmo prefers to adventure alone. "It looks too suspicious when
there's a large group of people". Like now: interviewee, reporter,
photographer and a curious colleague. When Kimmo with his fiancé heads
out for a summer holiday, the target is not the beaches of Spain.
"We travel to search for new places" Kimmo says laughing.
Kimmo's pure guess about people involved in urban exploration is 10 000
outside of Finland and about 100 in Finland. Kimmo hasn't met other
urban explorers face to face, but in internet he meets up people
regulary in discussion forums. Urban exploration has a long history and
you really cannot even measure it. "As long as people have existed,
they have wanted to know, what lies on the other side of the hill".
Finnish word for this hobby is hard to come by. "Urbaani
tutkimusmatka (Urban exploration) in Finnish sounds really stupid and a
hobby is even more silly sounding". Here's a job for the linguist.
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