Metropolitan Dreams took over one metro station, Hakaniemi, in Helsinki. By filling the station with odd soundscapes, posters and maps we tended to turn it into a playground of alternative spatial experiences and configurations of city space. Artists invited in the project created posters that were placed among the advertisements and info posters, and sounds collected by them from underground sounds of trains and people chatting in different languages were played on the station.

Metropolitan Dreams plays with metropolitan associations and rhetoric that have been used in describing Helsinki for decades. The project included an alternative Helsinki metro map, in which we took the metocymic logic of urban associations to its extremes: all existing stations were renamed after other cities, and attributes were added to underline their particular "identities".

The map has two additional lines: one mapping the artists participating in the project, and another providing a virtual escape to other cities and other undergrounds. The map is active, and all stations lead to other metro maps and posters by artists.

Digging deeper into this site, you will find our poster lounges, sound pieces, links to artists' home pages, writings and underground sites on the Web. We wish you a safe journey.