Record number of artworks at light festival Lux Helsinki

The much-awaited wintertime highlight, Lux Helsinki, once again illuminates the city around Epiphany. There will be a record number of art as some of the cancelled 2021 festival works will be combined with new plans. Approximately 30 artworks will be divided in two sections: Lux1 circles the Eläintarha park area and Lux2 stretches from the city centre all the way to eastern and northern Helsinki.
 
The circular Lux1 route around Töölö, Kallio and Pasila includes ten works. Swiss artist Dan Acher’s Borealis uses lasers to project colourful northern lights over the Olympic Stadium. The Alppipuisto Park houses Dutch artist Gijs van Bon’s PING, in which 200 beacons carry light and sound over a 150-metre track, using modern technology. The comic artist Tommi Musturi’s drawings take the audience to an endless imaginary world in the Tivolitie underpass, where the ever-changing, 60-metre work Deep Show is projected. The Lux1 route has no starting point, and you can travel the course along the marked route starting from any one of the works.
 
Lux2 consists of a total of around 20 works all over the city. In the city centre, the Forum corner, Citycenter, Parliament House and UPM-Kymmene head office will be turned into light art works, the Arabia factory is illuminated by Ainu Palmu’s Hope, which is inspired by the building’s history. Jari Vuorinen’s installation HAPPI, built in Hanasaari, communicates the replacement of the coal pile with a new kind of urban landscape. The thought-provoking works at Culture Centre Stoa in Itäkeskus include Cycles by Meri Ekola and Marc Melia, a work that considers the connection between sight and hearing. 
 
“The aim is to make Lux the most interesting light festival in the world”
 
The Lux Helsinki 2022 programme has been curated by Lari Suominen, Ilkka Paloniemi, Christina Dvinge, Petra Martinez, The Finnish Light Art Society Flash and Juha Rouhikoski. In the future, curating will be the responsibility of Juha Rouhikoski, who has just been elected the Artistic Director of Lux Helsinki.
 
“It is a great honour to take up the position of Artistic Director of this wonderful festival. Lux Helsinki is among the absolute elite of light festivals, so I have some big shoes to fill. And that is the way it should be. The residents of Helsinki have an international gem of light festivals right in their backyard! I am really looking forward to the upcoming Lux and cannot wait to begin constructing next year’s content. My aim is to make Lux the most interesting light festival in the world”, Rouhikoski says.
 
Lux Helsinki is an accessible and free family event that has attracted over half a million people in recent years. Lux Korkeasaari charges a separate entry fee, and for each ticket sold and annual card visit, one euro goes to protecting snow leopards. Lux Korkeasaari is open between 25 December 2021 and 9 January 2022 from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.
 
You can explore all Lux Helsinki works and artists on the Lux Helsinki website. More aspects of the programme will be announced during December. 

Lux Helsinki is realised with respect to coronavirus safety and current official guidelines. We comply with official instructions and recommendations when organising the event, and update the information concerning coronavirus practices as needed.
 
Lux Helsinki 5–9 January 2022 from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. Lux Helsinki is organised and produced by Helsinki Events Foundation. Route and work planning and production is the responsibility of Sun Effects Oy. The curators are Lari Suominen, Ilkka Paloniemi, Christina Dvinge, Petra Martinez, the Finnish Light Art Society FLASH and Juha Rouhikoski.
 
Lux Helsinki partners are Sun Effects Oy, STEK ry, Yle, Culture Centre Stoa, Korkeasaari Zoo, Varma, Helen, UPM-Kymmene, The UPM-Kymmene Cultural Foundation, Shopping Center Forum, Shopping Center Citycenter and the Parliament of Finland.