Satellite installations extend Lux Helsinki from Hanaholmen to Itäkeskus

The official Lux Helsinki route will stretch from Senate Square to the Tokoinranta shoreline between 4 and 8 January 2020. In addition to the nine main installations along the route, the light festival will feature six satellite installations and groups of installations outside the city centre. These satellite installations will extend Lux Helsinki even further, including East Helsinki for the first time.

“The satellite installations diversify and expand the light festival’s offerings by bring light art into new environments, such as among the nature and animals at Helsinki Zoo and beside the sea in the Market Square. The satellite installations also make it possible to present smaller and more delicate works that are most effective indoors,” says Lux Helsinki curator Ilkka Paloniemi.

“The satellite installations further strengthen the festival’s aim of being Finland’s most important winter arts event,” he adds.

Animal rights, stained glass made of plastic bags and a projection exploring flow dynamics

Lux Hanaholmen presents oriental magic, a homage to lighthouse beacons, and Emma Rönnholm’s collage of plastic bags entitled Serve Somebody, which transforms windows into Gothic stained glass. The installations by three artists can be seen between 4 January and 29 February both inside and outside Hanaholmen, the Swedish-Finnish Cultural Centre.

Lux Torikorttelit brings light art to the Torikorttelit courtyard, City Hall and the Market Square. This collection of works includes an animation of a ship collapsing, a video projection on a ceramic wall relief, a light installation that plays with colours and geometry, and a video installation by the Turkish light art group Nohlab entitled Streamline that explores flow dynamics. Lux Torikorttelit is organised in co-operation with Helsinki Art Museum HAM and Helsinki Biennial.

Lux Korkeasaari comprises light installations by three artists at Helsinki Zoo, providing an early taste of the festival atmosphere starting already on 25 December. The island will be lit up in festive lights, while its satellite installations will present a colourful riposte to hate speech, imaginary maps and charts that move across a tree trunk, and Mikko Kunnari’s video installation Humanimal, which takes a stand on animal rights and blurs the distinctions between man and animal. Lux Korkeasaari is included in the price of a normal ticket to the zoo, and for each ticket purchased during the event, one euro will be donated towards protecting snow leopards.

Lux Helsinki will also visit East Helsinki for the first time, as Lux Stoa presents works by three artists. The Lux Stoa collection of satellite installations includes a 3D lava projector, a glass ball that explores the possibilities and potential of sensitivity in our current world, and Teemu Määttänen’s and Ilkka Niemeläinen’s visual music composition ORNAMENTS Part 6, which lets anyone produce musical and visual material without any previous playing experience. 

The third annual Ultraviolet Gallery series of UV art can be admired front of the Marski by Scandic hotel on Mannerheimintie between 27 December and 8 January. Finally, the satellite installation Lyyra will wrap the soon-to-be-demolished administrative buildings in Hakaniemi at the end of Siltasaarenkatu in bright vines.

Find out more about the satellite installations here.

Full programme of events during the light festival

In addition to the light art, Lux Helsinki brings to the city a full programme of light-related events. Lux Helsinki Opening Club will combine light art and live music on the opening day of the festival on 4 January. Lux Morning in turn will cheer up commuters and early birds with four installations on the last morning of the festival on 8 January, and over twenty restaurants are participating in Lux Helsinki Eat, offering specially created servings and menus during the festival.

View the entire programme on the Lux Helsinki website.

Lux Helsinki, 4–8 January 2020, 5pm–10pm
Lux Helsinki Opening Club: Bring Your Own Beamer (BYOB), Quadrivium, Cleaning Women, Saturday 4 January, 6pm–12midnight, Valkoinen Sali
Lux Morning (installations 1, 4, 7 and 9): Wednesday 8 January, 7am–9am

Main partner: Sun Effects
Partners: SATO, Hanaholmen – Swedish-Finnish Cultural Centre, Korkeasaari Zoo, Granlund, Cultural Centre Stoa, Ylva, UNICEF Finland, Helsinki Art Museum HAM, Torikorttelit, Bright
Network partners: City, Johan & Nyström, Local Crew, Marski by Scandic, Kaslink Aito

Lux Helsinki 4–8 January 2020, 5pm–10pm. Lux Helsinki is organised by the Helsinki Events Foundation and produced by Susa Nokelainen. Sun Effects Oy is responsible for the design and production of the Lux Helsinki route and installations. The festival is curated by Ilkka Paloniemi together with Christina Dvinge (DK) and Martin Pošta (CZ).