The Swedish company, Audio Pro, which have been designing and manufacturing speakers for over 40 years, was investigating what to do with speakers that had a minor defect in their cabinets. A speaker that is not in absolute perfect condition, but have a minor scratch or stain, will make the speaker unsellable. “It is hardly environmentally friendly to throw away a speaker that is fully functioning”, says Jens Henriksen, CCO at the company, and was wondering if it would be possible to give these speaker a chance to a second life.
At a meeting with the art agency ‘Kulturhotellet’ in Helsingborg, he raised the question if they were willing to ask local artists if they would like to use these speakers as canvases for creative artworks. Peter Eriksson at Kulturhotellet thought it was a good idea, and at an event during the street art festival during the summer of 2019, a group of artists joined a project named Spe-Art to put some colours on these speakers. Among the participating artists you will find renowned artists within the Swedish street art community, like Tim Timmey, Appear37, Shaw Petronio, Collin Avery, Karima Kertam and Max Persson.
Obviously, the artists creativity resulted in both imaginative and beautiful artworks, on these somewhat unusual canvases. Each artist has made their individual mark on their specific speaker, and the result is an entire collection of inspirational sound boxes, with sustainability in focus.
Pleased with the result, Audio Pro started to consider letting the gains of these speakers contribute to the work performed by local charity organizations in Helsingborg. They chose ’Hemlösas hus’, as recipient. An auction of these decorated speakers is therefore currently being planned, where the revenue will be donated to ‘Hemlösas hus’. But before then, there will be an opening where interested buyers have a chance to take a closer look at these works of art, before they place their bid.
