The Lux Helsinki light art festival will once again illuminate various parts of Helsinki in early 2023. This time, the festival will extend beyond the city center to Ruoholahti and Suvilahti, and Lux Korkeasaari will also be held for the third time.
The free light art event Lux Helsinki will once again light up various areas of Helsinki from January 4–8. The theme of this year’s light art festival is “change,” and the event is organized and produced by the Helsinki Event Foundation.
This evocative festival attracts a large number of admirers: last year there were about 120,000 visitors, and before the pandemic years, attendance could reach as high as half a million.
“One of the goals of the Light Art Festivalis to offer city residents the opportunity to see Helsinki in a new light,” says Lux Helsinki’s artistic director Juha Rouhikoski.
The festival will take place throughout Helsinki
Rouhikoski reveals that the goal for the 2023 Lux Helsinki was to spread the event across a wide area. The program features over 30 light installations. Instead of the traditional single route, this year visitors can choose from several shorter routes, which makes it easier to explore the works and reduces crowds. The locations of the metro stations serve as the starting points for the placement of the light installations.
Another new feature this year is Suvilahti as a single exhibition area. In January, the area and its spaces will be transformed into a versatile stage for light art, where visitors can experience both outdoor and indoor installations.
“As a diverse area, Suvilahti is ideally suited as an art venue,” says Rouhikoski. “The area has the romance of an abandoned place, and at the same time, it is a vibrant and evolving urban part of Helsinki.”
Rouhikoski explains that one of the event’s artists, the French artist Romain Tardy, wanted to place his installation *The Great Indecision Council* in line with the Suvilahti gasometer. The work, which mimics the shape of the gasometer, transforms the most common search terms retrieved from Google into audiovisual signals that visitors can walk through. Meanwhile, Massimo Ubert’s Domus Aurea—or “Golden House”—will have its world premiere in the Boiler Hall.
An immersive light art tour over the course of a single evening
The theme of change is evident not only in the event’s innovative, decentralized format but also in its artistic content. Each art installation features immersive light art, and this year’s works even utilize AR technology.
“One of the goals of the Light Art Festival is to offer city residents the opportunity to see Helsinki in a new light.”
— Juha Rouhikoski, Artistic Director of Lux Helsinki
One of the event’s most spectacular works, Collectif Coin’s Abstract, which soars skyward with the power of 81 pillars. The Growthinstallation, located at Ruoholahdentori, depicts the journey of growth and invites people to join the work’s movement through the use of light.
This year’s program is designed so that, if desired, visitors can experience it all in a single evening. Of course, everyone is free to set their own pace and choose how to approach the works—the overall design emphasizes the individual experience.
Rouhikoski urges visitors to pause for a moment and immerse themselves in the world of the artworks. “Light speaks all languages. Stop, look, listen, and let light art take over your mind and your world,” he says.
Check out the Lux Helsinki program and artworks the event’s website. The works are on view January 4–8, 2023, from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. In addition to outdoor spaces, the works in Suvilahti are located in Kattilahalli and the gasometer. Admission to the event is free.
Lux Korkeasaari, located next to Kalasatama, is also open from December 26, 2022, through January 8, 2023. There is a separate admission fee for the area, and a portion of the proceeds will go toward snow leopard conservation efforts.