Corazón, by the Spanish fashion designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada in collaboration with the production and design company D-Facto, consists of a huge heart placed at the top of the steps of Helsinki Cathedral, beating in countless colours to powerful, specially composed music. The Cathedral backdrop, with its own lighting, merges into the installation. The duration of the piece is approximately five minutes. The installation was previously seen in the 2012 Fête des Lumières in Lyons, France.
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
The Madrid-born artist Agatha Ruiz de la Prada is one of Spain’s most celebrated fashion designers and cultural figures. Corazón is typical de la Prada, with love and happiness being two of the main themes in her internationally renowned, colourful and graphic fashion designs. The designer launched her first collection in 1981, and since then has been an active figure in the Spanish art and culture scene.
D-Facto is a production and design agency from Lyons that has realised numerous international large-scale projects for light festivals and other urban events.
Urban Flipper, by the French company CT Light Concept, turns the New Student House into a giant pinball game. The game ball travels along the decorative forms of the building, changing direction as it hits windows, balconies and columns. One viewer at a time can operate the game onsite, in front of the installation. The piece naturally includes all the appropriate game sounds! The interactive work was seen for the first time in the 2011 Fête des Lumières in Lyons, France.
In collaboration with Finland’s Slot Machine Association RAY. Supported by the French Institute in Finland.
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
CT Light Concept is a Lyons-based company run by Thibaut Berbezier and Carol Martin, specialising in light design and show and stage lighting. Interactivity is a central aspect of their work: the audience can often participate in installations using smartphones or game controllers.
360 is a study of the visual nature and beauty of fire, exploring the strong feelings that fire arouses in all of us. The performance combines the worlds of dance and fire circus. The performers carry out masterful moves with burning poles, ropes and hoops. 360 goes beyond the two-dimensionality of fire art, taking place on a round stage that can be viewed from all directions. The 25-minute performance will take place daily at 6 pm and 7:30 pm.
Performance time: Daily 6 pm and 7.30 pm
Fire Circus Walkea is an ensemble managed by fire artist and choreographer Antti Suniala, whose intention is to modernise the field of fire art and bring it closer to the world of contemporary circus. Walkea has hosted top international fire artists and dancers; this year the show includes Aušra Degutytė, Aistė Krasauskaitė, Ugnė Motekūnaitė and Jovita Aukštakalnytė from the Lithuanian Studio Fire Circle. Fire Circus Walkea previously took part in Lux Helsinki in 2011 and 2012.
Antti Suniala studied circus performing at the Arts Academy at Turku University of Applied Sciences, and at the China Beijing International Art School. He won the Finnish Artist Association Entertainer of the Year award in 2010, and an art award from his home town of Järvenpää in 2011. Suniala lives and practises his art in Berlin.
The audiovisual installation by sound designer Kristian Ekholm and media artist Paula Lehtonen was inspired by its venue, the ruined former railway warehouses belonging to state railway company VR. The piece was designed to remind residents of Helsinki’s recent history.
The changing colours of the installation emulate the tones of a sunset in May. At close quarters, the whole nature of the installation is revealed, with a sound element consisting of soft music.
The old goods yard that survives in central Helsinki is a monument to the intense days of early industrialisation over a century ago. The warehouses later became a centre of grassroots culture, and has now been taken over by large-scale cultural events and the business world. The artists wanted to bring the building once more into the limelight.
The realisation of the installation is supported by Konstsamfundet.
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Paula Lehtonen is a Helsinki-based media artist who creates spatial video installations and electronic art. Recent exhibitors of her work have included KUMU in Tallinn and Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova in Turku. Lehtonen graduated with a degree in fine arts from Tampere University of Applied Sciences in 2008 and from the Media Lab of the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in 2013.
Kristian Ekholm is a Helsinki-based sound designer who graduated from the Department of Lighting and Sound Design of the Theatre Academy in Helsinki in 2008, and has also studied audiovisual media culture at the University of Lapland. Ekholm is actively involved in the performing arts, through work with companies such as the Viirus Theatre. Ekholm received an award for his stage work at the centenary gala of the Swedish Theatre Association in Finland in 2013, and an award for Best Sound Design at the Thalia Gala in 2010.
Kuula (The Ball in English) brings the light to the glass corner on the Mannerheimintie side of the Music Centre, also serving to light the way for passers-by. The installation is inspired by the original shape of light, a glowing point. The materials of Kuula are also mechanics, friction, structure and sound. The music for the installation was composed by Tapani Rinne. The renewed installation has previously been shown at events including the Valon Voimat festival.
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Ilkka Paloniemi is a lighting designer and theatre consultant who has completed hundreds of performing arts projects since 1980, ranging from rock to opera, and from lighting and spatial installations to contemporary dance.
The internationally renowned musician, composer and producer Tapani Rinne is best known for his ground-breaking work behind Rinneradio and Wimme Saari. A pioneer of early techno-jazz, he is known for his experimental and innovative style of playing the clarinet and saxophone. Rinne has composed music for numerous documentary and feature films, theatre plays, radio and television productions.
Unen ääret (Edges of Dreams), projected on to the façade of the villa, was inspired by the history of the pink building and its inhabitants: remembrances, memories and dreams. What are the resemblances between memories and dreams? How close are they to wakefulness? The classical-style building is seen through dreamlike visions formed by painted films and shadow patterns. The accompanying music is composed by Aake Otsala.
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Mika Haaranen is a lighting and set designer and photographer who has designed the visual aspects of many performances and events. His works extend from the world of theatre and musicals to contemporary dance, concerts and film. Having graduated from the Department of Lighting and Sound Design of the Theatre Academy, Haaranen is now completing an MA in Scenography at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture.
FYR is a homage to lighthouse beacons – fires and signals that light the way for night-time travellers. The installation comprises more than two hundred storm lanterns and light bulbs. FYR is a lighthouse that shines slivers of light on to the walls of the National Museum’s courtyard. An earlier version of this installation was seen in a Berlin-based joint exhibition space of SUOMESTA Gallery and the Freies Museum Berlin.
Entry to the courtyards of the National Museum is from Museokatu, through gates behind the building.
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
The light and video artist Jari Haanperä, who now resides in Berlin, is known for his matrix-like light installations which often make use of various lenses and kinesis. His installations are moving pictures without film. The artist combines simple display methods and low-tech methods with electric light, acoustic, electronic and digital sound, motorised movement, optics and objects.
Snailtrail is a laser light installation by the German artist Philipp Artus. Drawn on to the surface of phosphorescent material, the work creates a glowing trace that gradually fades. To follow the progress of the work, the viewer must trail behind the “snail” on the cylindrical surface.
The work was inspired by the exponential growth taking place in the history of humanity. Currently it is exemplified by the explosion in the quantity of information on the internet. Snailtrail was seen previously at the Frankfurt Luminale light event in 2012, among others.
Entry to the courtyards of the National Museum is from Museokatu, through gates behind the building.
A video version of the installation can be seen at the café of the National Museum daily from 5 to 10 pm.
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Philipp Artus has studied art, animation and music theory in France and Portugal, and graduated from the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany. His works combine motion, image and sound. He creates audiovisual experiences that bring together playfulness and minimalism, timeless themes and modern observations, speed and silence. Artus has exhibited works in several museums, galleries and festivals around the world.
The atmospheric lantern park that has enchanted audiences for many years comes to life once again through a collaboration between Aalto University and the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. The installation is curated by the environmental and community artist Kaisa Salmi. Included are new, increasingly colourful lanterns made by art and design students, to add to ones created in previous years by students and professionals.
Lantern Park is a light extravaganza that grows larger with each passing year. It embraces the wintry park as night falls, enhancing and extending the atmosphere created by the park’s own lighting. This year the installation involves nearly 150 lanterns reaching from the National Opera all the way to the Hakasalmi Villa. The lanterns provide their light all through the night.
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Philippe Morvan’s Ring[z] has been inspired by the site for which it was originally created: the historic Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls (Trois Gaules) in Lyon, France, dating from 19 A.D. The installation was first seen at the 2012 Fête des Lumières.
The installation is about power and its effect on the audience. Its shape is a ring, emulating that of the amphitheatre and alluding to the ancient worlds of symbols, cultures and science and religion. The work makes use of the narrative possibilities of the circular shape, which has no beginning or end.
The installation includes a soundscape composed by Shenyan Hou, reflecting the stories told by the lights. These consist of 180 light sources and four animations playing in a hypnotic loop. The work is supported by the French Institute in Finland.
The best way to view the installation is from the seats in the amphitheatre.
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Philippe Morvan is a French visual designer, who specialises in artistic and stage lighting for urban spaces such as parks, city squares and light festivals. Morvan’s experience of large-scale film, circus and theatre productions has taught him to work as part of a community. Many of his light installations were created in collaboration with local citizens or students. Morvan always adapts his works to the available space, to keep them surprising for the audience.
Ring[z] is a continuation of a series of works based on the circular shape. Morvan’s installation Cosmogole lit the way at the National Opera Amphitheatre in the 2013 Lux Helsinki event.
This year, for the first time, Lux Helsinki includes an indoor exhibition of light art. Lux IN presents almost twenty works of art, ranging from industrial minimalism to video installations. With the indoor venue of Merikaapelihalli, it is possible to explore an even greater diversity of artworks.
Exhibited will be new and previously seen light artworks by well-known artists and also installations from the Light as Visual Art course, created by lighting design students at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. At the Lux Lounge in the middle of the exhibition space you can relax with a refreshment while watching documentary videos on recent light art history. In collaboration with the Cable Factory.
Address: Tallberginkatu 1. The venue can be reached by tram no. 8, buses no. 20, 21V, 65A and 66A, and the metro (Ruoholahti).
Images:
Upper picture Noisescape by Teemu Määttänen
Lower picture Medicine City by Antti Pussinen & Martta-Kaisa Virta
On the right Hyperpeili by Brainwave Music LAB
Performance time: Daily from 2 pm to 10 pm
Entropy, the second law of thermodynamics, is a measure of a system’s tendency towards spontaneous change. Entropy describes the process of increasing of disorder in the universe. All systems tend to progress in the direction of increasing entropy; differences between states and entities gradually disappear. Entropy also suggests an arrow of time: the process of entropy is irreversible.
Terike Haapoja represented Finland in the 55th Art Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia in Venice, Italy in 2013.
The light installation is inspired by the aesthetics of early pocket calculators and digital watches. Dozens of fluorescent tubes create angular words written by Canadian poet and author Daniel Canty. The installation also incorporates sound.
Brainwave Music LAB develops interactive applications and environments that react to brainwaves and other biophysical processes. These bio responses reach the domain of sensory perception as audiovisual material with the help of digital media. The installation is supported by Kone Foundation.
In this video montage, the lights of different cities intertwine to form a single growing network of lights on the planet. On the northern fringe of this network, in the light of an electric bulb, a group of Finns contemplate the concept of “world of light” and their individual relationships to it.
“The amount of light in the world is equal to the ability of a man to generate it. There will be more light tomorrow than there is today, whether I want it or not. Then the only possibility that is left will be to get out of the light.”
“Fear is one of the central issues associated with darkness. Man needs a lot of artificial light to keep the fear at bay.”
Rest is a moment’s respite from everyday tempests;
the glowing remains of the day on a fisherman’s palm;
a letter to Caliban;
a lit island on which to lay one’s head.
In collaboration with Gallery Kandela.
The Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea. In this work, a mass of rippling images meets a rippling surface, and a hand-drawn line meets programmed computer graphics. Exalting the beauty of waves, the piece consists of 78 plywood boards with projected images. Noisescape was specially designed for Lux Helsinki. The installation is supported by the Centre for Practice as Research in Theatre at the University of Tampere.
The Red Horizon investigates the way in which we see light, space and colour. There is a red light behind a hung frame, dispersed by a stretched film into the shape of a horizon and forming a light landscape stretching to infinity. A monochromatic blue light blends the background into the distance while emphasising the closeness and presence of the red horizon.
A big, illuminated installation surprises the viewer. At first it seems like a beautiful and a mesmerizing night time cityscape: realizing the material of the buildings takes the themes of the artwork into deeper levels. Medicine City is made of tens of thousands used and empty medicine aluminium packages.
The artwork is about medicalization of our society. It is also about how cities can be seen as a medicine for loneliness and light as a medicine against fear.
This work makes viewers feel that they are in a moving space – as if they were on a train going through a tunnel. In the functional sculpture, light passes through several circular forms, making moving shadows on the walls and ceiling. The speed of the lights changes at each pass, from dizzyingly fast to calmer and more hypnotic.
The installation is a partial reconstruction of a triptych exhibited at the Retretti Art Centre in 1995. The original installation was ruined during the exhibition due to moisture problems at the art centre.
In this work, the viewer submits voluntarily to a shocking experience. Moving our own shadows, we may see the different forms they take independent of us. Later, our shadows become filled with a new substance.
The work seeks to affect people in a manner similar to music. Viewers are placed in a position where their backs – their unprotected sides – are against objects. Being aware that the objects will soon come to life, they can feel events in both their mind and their body. The contact with the physical person who causes these events is indirect, but the reactions to the events are genuine.
The work describes the stages of a human turning into ice.
This piece forms a part of a series in which Ervasti works with mirrors and light reflections. The light forms reflected onto the wall through mirrors create immaterial illusions of space and changing compositions of colour.
A loupe is a tool for viewing – a magnifying glass used, for example, by photographers. A mirrored reflection creates a kaleidoscope-like vision of another reality.
Students of Lighting Design at the University of the Arts Helsinki
Installations from the course Light as Fine Art
The installation of Verho, who works on the interfaces of popular culture and high culture, examines the inequality between the interior and the exterior – and between the memory and the record.
Phototropism
1. the growth response of plant parts to the stimulus of light, producing a bending towards the light source
2. the response of animals to light: sometimes used as another word for phototaxis
Study of the world is not only for creating metaphors but for understanding its materiality.
"This work is one phase in my process of studying the relation between artificial light and life in our society. I study the biological, sociological, economical and psychological connections that deal with our fatal love for controlling the divine light to shine for 24 hours a day and the hopeful quest for never-ending energy resources."
Have you ever noticed the thousands of blood vessels that intersect on your retinas? Look closely. There they are. You have only forgotten them. Enimmäkseen hyvä näkyvyys fumbles towards the limits of the eyesight. The installation sits down to the edge of the field of vision and peeps over the edge.
You can't see yourself in the landscape.
Suojaväri/Camouflage is sculpture of disappearing, of reflections or of eternal glow. The surface is the border between human and the world, the most visible form of the human being. However it is just a reflection of its environment, a twinkle in the eye or a move of the light on the skin.
Because of its politics, Russia has been in the headlines worldwide already for a long time. Eurasianists are against the westernization of Russia and its influences. Protesters and sexual minorities have lately faced a lot of opposition from the Russian administration. The installation is an objection towards the ideology of the Russian politics.
In between the blues is an installation about colours that can be seen between the two blues, the sea and the sky. In this space a vast amount of colours confront each other for 24 hours a day.
Five remote places on the earth where these two blues confront in extremely different environments are chosen for the installation. In the installation these confrontations are projected as colour light. The rhythm of the installation is defined by the solar cycle occurring in the chosen places at this time of the year. One solar cycle is scaled to five minutes.
The five chosen places are Svalbard, Norway; Korppoo, Finland; Santiago, Cape Verde; Tasmania, Australia and Antarctica.
Light is on rails again, with the return of the Lux Ratikka tram from 2013 Lux Helsinki. A tram has been transformed into a moving light installation that travels along city-centre rails during the festival, daily between 5 pm and 10 pm. The tram can't take on passengers.
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
The installation uses programmable LED floodlights intended for theatre use. Thanks to their energy efficiency, the whole piece uses less than 3,000 watts of electricity. Traffic safety has been taken into account in the design. The work is designed and realised by the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki lighting design students Riikka Karjalainen and Alexander Salvesen.
Partners
In collaboration with
