Dream Café (Väärä Kahvila), rooftop of Väärätalo, Imatra, summer 2025.
Dream Café (Väärä Kahvila) is a participatory art project exploring collective storytelling and dreams as an alternative currency. For five days in summer 2025, an odd pop-up café was operated by the artist — dressed as a waiter — on the rooftop of an abandoned mall building in Imatra, Finland. The café served coffee, pastries, and questions. In return, visitors paid by adding to an evolving myth rooted in Väärätalo, drawn on pink paper and recorded as audio. Each tale was passed to the next guest, transforming like a game of telephone, weaving into a strange urban folklore that blurs fact and fiction.
Dream Café was part of Aalto University Department of Media's collaboration with the City of Imatra, funded by the 'I love Kipsari' Grant 2025. The performance is complete after 30 visitors; the artist is currently transcribing the recordings and weaving them into a loosely connected narrative. Stories arrived in Finnish, English, and Spanish — visitors were invited to speak in whichever language felt natural.
Below are all 28 recordings, in order. Each card holds a drawing made by that visitor and the audio of their story. Click any card to listen.
Dream Logs