The collapsed house is surrounded by a portless steel fence in Pöytylä. The Khronos House, closed in 2016, is a contemporary art project of the Lönnström Museum in Rauma. It explores the impact of time on the house and nature.
Can time be stopped? The issue was firmly on the agenda at a discussion organised by the Lönnström Art Museum in Rauma, where the question of what happens to *Khronos House* now was discussed.
The Khronos House is the first Lönnström project of the Lönnström Art Museum, realised in 2016 by the artists’ group IC-98. The environmental artwork is located in Pöytylä, Southwest Finland.
A special work
– I was inspired. The idea was somehow so crazy. Nothing like this had ever been done before in Finland,” Kaurila says.
The artists were finally able to buy a house in Pöytä Ortenojja from the scumbags. It had been deserted for 20 years. The building was named Khronos house and was surrounded by a gateless steel mesh fence. Khronos is the ancient Greek god of time.
Markku Kaurila from Pöytyälä stops by the house regularly. He leaves the car on the side of the road and goes around the fenced house.
– I think the most about what animals might be in the house.
The fence prevents the visits of moose and deer, but there are certainly plenty of small animals: rodents, insects and birds.
Nature dictates.
The house makes you wonder what will happen to it in the future, but also what has been there.
– However, the small farm has had 10 hectares of field, cows and other animals. I haven’t had to go to the village store all the time, Kaurila describes.
Artistic activism
The work examines the effect of time on nature and the built environment, as well as issues of property rights, conservation and ecology.
How does time affect it? Has it stopped in the house?
The plot is slowly growing over. Under one of the windows, the moisture has corroded the board. There is always something going on in the house and yard, even if you can’t get there.
The local newspaper comes once a year to report on the state of the house. If the house had not become an art project, the fate of the building in poor condition would have been to be run over by a Bulldozer.
– The Khronos house does not stop time, but it can stop us thinking about time.