LUMO Light Festival Oulu
23–25 November 2018
This year’s Lumo Light Festival is concentrated within Oulu city centre and spans only one weekend. Once again, the festival is highly international, and most of the artworks receive their Finnish premieres in Oulu and Lumo. The selection features also many pieces made by local artists and communities from Oulu. Lumo Festival 2018 is already the sixth of its kind in Oulu.
The theme of the Lumo Festival this year is feelings, which the artworks placed on display arouse in many forms – reaching beyond everyday experience, even touching on the sublime. Landscapes of the moon, a tempest of love arising from unknown forces, love darning the torn-up world together, a street ripped apart to reveal the underworld, longing and death, emotions hiding in the depths of consciousness, journeys around the world, between the heavenly and the infernal – all of these are central themes and images of this year’s Lumo Festival.
The Lumo Light Festival invites everyone to embark on an adventure of light and shadows in Oulu this November.
The whole program will be released on 23 October.
Sturm Der Liebe
Everything bathes in mazarine blue. Birds announce a rising, undefined energy, swelling in the distance. A whirlwind of colours rouses, dictated by the growing sound of distant voices. Emotions flare up in every corner and as chaos passionately takes over, a storm reaches its climax.
The similarities between the build-up to a hurricane and the ups and downs in an ardent relationship are endless. Sturm der Liebe visualises this metaphor in all its facets. From the tiniest molecule finding its way to the eye of the storm to endorphins released, each element remains in constant movement. You cannot help but get carried away by Nele Fack’s compelling projections onto Oulu Cathedral, propelled by the powerful soundtrack of composer AMyn.
Relief eventually comes when the tempest dies down and tempers have calmed. All seems peaceful again, but is it calm before the storm?
Museum Of The Moon
Shopping Centre Valkea
By: Luke Jerram, (UK)
Sponsored by: Shopping Centre Valkea
Measuring seven metres in diameter, the moon features 120dpi detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface. At an approximate scale of 1:500,000, each centimetre of the internally lit spherical sculpture represents 5km of the moon’s surface. The installation is a fusion of lunar imagery, moonlight and surround sound composition created by BAFTA and Ivor Novello award winning composer Dan Jones.
More info: https://my-moon.org/
Skeleton Dance
Kirkkokatu 9
By: Skullmapping (Belgia)
Sponsored by: LähtiTapiola
In 'Skeleton Dance', the street breaks open to reveal the underworld to the public. An unpleasant discovery, as there are gruesome skeletons hiding under the paving stones… But what starts out as a nightmare takes an unexpected turn and even has a romantic ending...
We created a mapping project in which we developed a new technique to project onto the cobblestones instead of onto a building. A procedure similar to the well-known street paintings, but with moving images.
Darned by Love
CONTACTS
Program Manager Jarkko Halunen
jarkko.halunen @ouka.fi
+ 358 44 703 8274
Producer Anna Lanas
anna @annalanas.fi
+358 44 317 1282
Past festivals
Lumo Light Festival Oulu was celebrated for the fifth time in 2017. The theme of the festival was “Encounters”. Visitors came across astonishing encounters in familiar environments, in virtual worlds, and with characters from the past painted with lights. The festival lightened up the darkest days of the year and created stunning views, strange appearances and performances that enabled the audience to see their environment with new eyes.
The weekend 17–19 November was the main weekend of the festival, during which the works of European guest artists and groups were exhibited and most of the festival events were kicked off. The works and events of the main weekend were on display mostly in and around downtown Oulu.
The program continued until Finland’s centennial independence celebration on 6 December. The light artworks with their different shades of blue on the last week of the festival were part of the official Finland 100 programme in Oulu.
Once again, the Lumo Light Festival also left a long-lasting impact in the cityscape with permanent light installations.
