This light installation by Miika Riikonen, who will turn 37 in 2015, pays tribute to the almost 163 year-old Helsinki Cathedral and honours the 80th birthday of Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen. The installation is an exceptional anti-spectacle. The artwork does not aim to make the monument ever bigger: it seeks to highlight the multiform design of the Cathedral and its architecture. With light, Riikonen picks up details from the architecture that are not part of architect Carl Ludvig Engel's original design.
Having been involved in the creation of various illuminations of the Cathedral, Riikonen is now keen to present his own version. The duration of the piece will be approximately six minutes.
Light installation: Miika Riikonen
Tuomiokirkko (Cathedral): Architect Carl Ludvig Engel, completed by Ernst Bernhard Lohrmann
Music: Aulis Sallinen – Metamorfora Op. 34, performed by Ilkka Paananen and Saara Hakkila
Photos: Jussi Ratilainen
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Miika Riikonen is a resident of Helsinki, who began his career in light and video design in Jyväskylä at the end of the 90s. He has created lighting and video effects for pop groups, festivals, television, corporate events, operas, dance performances and theatres. A Bachelor of Arts (Theatre and Drama), Riikonen graduated in Lighting and Sound Design from the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki in 2012.
Fire Circus Walkea, directed by Antti Suniala, will combine the worlds of fire-based circus acts and dance into a unique package in the historical surrounds of Senate Square. The performance will explore fire-art from modern-dance perspectives, having been created in collaboration with renowned contemporary circus artiste and choreographer Cristiana Casadio. The work group consists of professional dancers from Berlin. Costume designer Mirkka Metsola will be in charge of the wardrobe.
Photos: Jussi Ratilainen
Performance time: At 5pm and 8pm (duration approx. 25 minutes)
Fire Circus Walkea is an ensemble managed by fire artist and choreographer Antti Suniala and is engaged in modernising the field of fire art by bringing it closer to the world of contemporary circus. Fire Circus Walkea has previously participated in Lux Helsinki in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
Antti Suniala has been performing and teaching since the beginning of the year 2000, and has become one of the most renowned fire circus performers on the international scene. Suniala has studied circus performance at the Arts Academy of 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.
Location: courtyard of the Bock House, entrance either from Sofiankatu street or Aleksanterinkatu street
Sinisten välissä (In between the blues) is about the colours we see between two shades of blue, those of the sky and sea. Around the clock, every day, a huge range of colours meet on the horizon.
For this work, five distant locations from around the globe were chosen at which these two blues meet in utterly different environments. The work projects these encounters in the form of coloured light. Its rhythm is set by the solar cycle of the chosen locations at this time of year. Each cycle is scaled down to five minutes.
The five locations chosen are Svalbard in Norway; Korppoo in Finland; Santiago in Cape Verde; Tasmania off the coast of mainland Australia; and Antarctica.
This work formed part of the Lux IN exhibition held at the Cable Factory during last year's Lux Helsinki festival, and is now being presented in a new environment.
Photo: Jussi Ratilainen
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Location: courtyard of the Bock House, entrance either from Sofiankatu street or Aleksanterinkatu street
"You can't see yourself in the landscape."
Suojaväri (Camouflage) is a sculpture about disappearing, reflections or eternal glow. The surface is the border between humanity and the world, the human form at its most visible. However, this is just a reflection of the surrounding environment, a twinkle in the eye or a movement of light on the skin.
This work formed part of the Lux IN exhibition held at the Cable Factory during last year's Lux Helsinki festival, and is now being presented in a new environment.
Photo: Jussi Ratilainen
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Location: courtyard of Bryggeri Helsinki, entrance from both Sofiankatu street or Unioninkatu street
Due to its politics, Russia has long been making the headlines worldwide. Eurasianists oppose Russia's westernisation and the influx of Western influences. Protesters and sexual minorities have recently faced strong opposition from the Russian administration.
The installation protests against the ideology currently underlying Russian politics.
This work formed part of the Lux IN exhibition held at the Cable Factory during last year's Lux Helsinki festival, and is now being presented in a new environment.
Photo: Jussi Ratilainen
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Address: Yliopistonkatu 3
This work will create an illusion on the facade of the Porthania university building, which will make you see the building in a different light. The row of windows will be filled with shifting blocks, which incessantly create empty spaces and scenes as they move around. The virtual space created by the blocks will blend in to become part of the Porthania: the window front will seem like an observation point within a larger machinery working behind the facade. A sound installation provided by Thomas A. Troge will create a movie-like effect.
The work will celebrate the 375th anniversary of the University of Helsinki. The piece is supported by Goethe-Institut Finnland.
Photo: Jussi Ratilainen
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Mader Wiermann is an artistic duo from Germany, comprising media artist Holger Mader and architect Heike Wiermann. Combining light, moving images and sound, Mader Wiermann's works have been displayed at various events and museums around the world, in locations such as Sao Paolo, New York, Beijing, Copenhagen and Oslo.
Adress: Unioninkatu 38
The atmospheric lantern park Lantern Park will come to life this year in the intimate environs of the courtyard of the Topelia Block, located on the grounds of the University of Helsinki. The work will feature over a hundred lanterns: in addition to those familiar from previous years there will be new lanterns prepared by students of art and design. Lighting belonging to the park itself will contribute to the atmosphere.
The Lantern Park will be created in collaboration with Aalto University and the University of the Arts Helsinki. The park will be curated by lighting designer Mia Kivinen.
The work will celebrate the 375th anniversary of the University of Helsinki.
Photo: Jussi Ratilainen
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
New lanterns have been made during autumn 2014 the following people: Liisa Ahlfors, Elena Aleksandrova, Marianne Autio, Suvi Ermilä, Oscar Furunes, Ilkka Jaakkola, Kristian Jalava, Matti Jykylä, Anders Karls, Inka Komulainen, Anni-Marja Kuula, Petra Kytölä, Jaakko-Ilkka Leeve, Amanda Manner, Petra Martinez, Maria Mastola, Duncan Matthews, Veronika Nehasilová, Niko Nurmi, Saara Palmujoki, Ilkka Paloniemi, Jaakko Raami, Alexander Salvesen, Beatrice/Sofie Sillanpää, Laureline Tilkin-Franssens, Fernando Visockis & Pedro Heldt, Tomoya Wakayama and Emilio Zamudio.
See photos of the new lanterns in the gallery.
Water Light Graffiti is a work that needs audience participation in order to be realised. A surface made of thousands of LEDs is illuminated when it comes into contact with water. You can create “water light graffiti” with a brush or your own finger, for example. Anyone can participate in creating this artwork, which combines technology, interactiveness and street art.
Water Light Graffiti has featured in events around the world, such as the Eindhoven Glow light event in the Netherlands, the Lyon Fête des Lumières light event in France, and New York Design Week in the United States.
The installation is sponsored by Finland’s Slot Machine Association. The piece is supported by Institut français de Finlande.
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Frenchman Antonin Fourneau engages with interactive art and popular culture, and has a special interest in exploring creative interaction involving large groups of people. He has worked in Spain and Japan and has participated in several digital art exhibitions. He is currently Professor of Digital Arts at ENSAD in Paris and a guest lecturer in several schools around the world.
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 (Mostly a good visibility) gropes towards the limits of one's eyesight. The installation places itself at the edge of the field of vision, and peeps over it.
In this work, hand-painted slides by Anniina Veijalainen are projected towards the viewer. The audience can enjoy its world of colours and design through opal glasses fitted over the eyes.
This work formed part of the Lux IN exhibition held at the Cable Factory during last year's Lux Helsinki festival, and is now being presented in a new environment.
Photos: Jussi Ratilainen
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Did you think that shadow can only have dark tones? Time Lapse Plant gathers colours from the viewer's shadow and puts them into motion. For Lux Helsinki, an interactive version of the work will be created, in which members of the public can experience what happens to their own shadows.
Time Lapse Plant provides a glimpse of the future: the work pushes the properties of modern LED lighting technology to the limits. It shows what low energy consumption and the light source's incredibly fast reaction times mean in practice.
Photos below: Jussi Ratilainen
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
A citizen of Japan, Kinsei, aka Takayuki Fujimoto, has been exploring LED technology as a light source for many years. His works have taken the use of light into new territory, pushing the envelope in terms of how light can be used in conceptual art. He is a founding member of the artistic collective Dumb Type, formed in Kyoto, Japan, in 1984, and has acted as the lighting designer and technical director for almost all of the group's works.
Aake Otsala is a composer and sound designer from Finnish Lapland. His musical compositions combine elements of nostalgic folk and electronic music and have featured in dance performances, art installations and interior design. Otsala began his career in the 1990s as a bass guitarist for progressive rock group Absoluttinen Nollapiste and has since worked as a producer for bands of many kinds.
In terms of light, Finland is a land of contrasts. Once the long dark winter has been vanquished, the nightless nights of summer feel like they have never been away. The mystical summer night has inspired artists through the ages.
This work reminds viewers of the nightless nights, in the midst of an urban setting. Its stylised wooden frames present a modern interpretation of a summer birch grove. Changing light provides an abstract take on the ever wandering light of the nightless nights, filtered through the forest trees. On the horizon in the background, the colours of midsummer are brought to life. Viewers can hear the endless sounds of summer nights.
The installation is supported by iGuzzini Finland & Baltic Oy and Tehomet Oy.
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
WhiteNight Lighting is the work of Joonas Saaranen and Arto Heiskanen. Known for their architectural lighting, this pair make the occasional but regular foray into the world of light art. Nordic nature and light, which form the sources of inspiration of the duo, are the prevailing theme of their works. Their art engages in a playful dialogue between light and shade, while leaving the audience room to interpret what it is witnessing.
The wooden-based light installation OVO will be situated in the rear yard of the Hakasalmi Villa. Viewers can enter the installation, where they will be surrounded by its light animation and soundscape. The work is shaped like an egg – a global symbol of new life. OVO's universal and streamlined form has delighted audiences at many international light events.
Photo: Jussi Ratilainen
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
ACT Lighting Design from Belgium has been in operation for over two decades in the fields of building lighting, show lighting and light art. The group creates unique pieces by infusing building lighting with creativity, innovation and feeling, and art and entertainment with pragmatism, perfectionism and technical know-how. Koert Vermeulen is in charge of the lighting design, while the staging is managed by Marcos Viñals Bassols. The sculpture was created by Pol Marchandise & Mostafa Hadi of Odeaubois.
"Wir wandeln alle in Geheimnissen. Wir sind von einer Atmosphäre umgeben von der wir noch gar nicht wissen, was sich alles in ihr regt, und wie es mit unserem Geiste in Verbindung steht.“
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The works of Jürgen Albrecht and Isabelle Mars are abstract compositions, whose colours range from impenetrable black to bright white. They are neither picture nor object, but three-dimensional fields that exist only in light. Their point of origin is the architectural space in which they are located. These works are illusions: the inside and outside fade into each other. They create a visual labyrinth in which the dual nature of light is reflected as material and immaterial phenomena.
The piece is supported by Goethe-Institut Finnland.
Entry to the courtyards of the National Museum is from Museokatu, through the gates behind the building.
* On Thursday 8 January also the exhibitions of the National Museum are open until 10pm.
First photo: Jussi Ratilainen
Second photo: Ilkka Paloniemi
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Jürgen Albrecht and Isabelle Mars live and work in Hamburg, Germany. As well as Germany, their works have featured in exhibitions in France, Belgium, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Great Courtyard of the National Museum will be filled with the Mandala series of artworks by Ishmail Sandstroem. Implements used for the treatment of diabetes – such as insulin pens, syringes and needles, as well as blood glucose test strips and lancets – will be illuminated by LED lights. Ishmail Sandstroem believes that, with the assistance of the Mandala – Sanskrit for circle, centre or connection – we can learn to view the horrific and terrifying as beautiful and redemptive.
Entry to the courtyards of the National Museum is from Museokatu, through the gates behind the building.
* On Thursday 8 January also the exhibitions of the National Museum are open until 10pm.
The upper photo: Jussi Ratilainen
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Ishmail Sandstroem is an outsider artist with an Algerian-Swedish background. He lives in the Sunnyside precinct in Queens, New York. Sandstroem is known for his delicate, primitivist line drawings and light artworks; while these are often abstract, they are always vibrant with emotion. The curator of Ishmail Sandstroem is theatre director Petri Lehtinen.
"On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog."
Steiner 1993
A white cube is erected on front of the Finlandia Hall. Inside is a microphone. The stage is available for anyone who wishes to express an opinion, tell a joke, or sing. You have three minutes. No control, no censorship, no identity.
Anonymous will turn Finlandia Hall into a communications tool. This light artwork offers viewers the chance to present their own, apparently invisible and anonymous, opinions. Using light-based expression, it will visualise the speaker's voice and movements, creating an abstract projection of light in motion on the facade of Finlandia Hall. The light will not reveal who is inside the cube.
Photo: Jussi Ratilainen
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Lighting Design Collective Helsinki is an international design studio specialising in light for the built environment and architecture.
Originally from the city of Oulu in Finland, Tapio Rosenius is a lighting designer and artist who has completed projects in over 20 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. He has been presented with dozens of international awards in the fields of lighting design and art.
Jari Vuorinen is a lighting designer from Helsinki, with over ten years of experience in architecture and film lighting. His holistic methodology focuses on bringing out the character and hierarchy of spaces through the medium of light.
Address: Annankatu 30. FOR THE LAST DAY ON WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY.
During Lux Helsinki, the large windows on the front of the Annantalo building will be placed at the disposal of city residents. Projectors will be used to project dream images and stories, which visitors can view or create themselves, onto the windows. In addition, the Magic Lantern in the yard will be personalised to give it a new look.
Several different workshops will be guided by art teachers from Annantalo and will be suitable for people of all ages. Download a brochure of the Annantalo programme (pdf, in Finnish).
The Annantalo cafe will be open during Lux Helsinki.
Photos: Jussi Ratilainen
Performance time: Please note! Only from 4 to 7 January from 5 pm to 10 pm
What do people do in the city? They pass by in a rush. What if we were to change this behaviour with the push of a button? Let’s give curious passers by the chance to put themselves in the spotlight. At the push of a button, the show begins and turns the city into a stage where anything can happen. Maybe this will be your one minute of fame.
See the social media or ask at the info booth in Senate Square to discover the location of the work.
This artwork was shown for the first time at the Luminale light event in Frankfurt 2014. The piece is supported by Goethe-Institut Finnland.
Already published venues of the artwork
4 January: Keskuskatu street
5 January: Narinkkatori square next to Kamppi shopping centre
6 January: Mannerheim Square next to Kiasma Art Museum
7 January: Railway square next to the ice park
8 January: Annantalo (address Annankatu 30)
Photo: Jussi Ratilainen
Performance time: Daily from 5 pm to 10 pm
Jasper Leonard Kühn is a lighting designer from Germany. His work focuses on human interaction and is inspired by the possibilities presented by light. Kühn works at the interface of art, design and educational theory.
Partners
In collaboration with
