
See you next time!
Lumo Light Festival Oulu lights up the city on 17 -19 November 2023. See you then!
Last years programme

- Design: Circus Lumineszenz (AUT)
- Location: Kauppurienaukio
- In collaboration: Valkea Shopping Centre
The passage of infinite reflections "Ereignishorizont // Event Horizon" proposes the expansion of a transit area by the use of light; new dimensions become visible when the light interacts with the facets of a system designed to deceive the senses. What was apparent might not be there. What we think may not exist, now seems real and it is displayed in front of us. An endless game of shapes that twist our perception of space-time continuum.

- Design and realisation: Joni Pakanen Entertainment & Sky High Pictures
- Location: Rotuaari
Interactive VIRTUAL MAGIC experience involves viewers live and offers marvels remotely from the other side of FInland. In the middle of Rotuaari, a window opens to an imaginary virtual world where everything is possible. The installation can be seen on November 18-20 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Joni Pakanen is the 2021 Finnish champion of virtual magic and a pioneer of his profession in Finland. Now this modern form of magic is showcased in a new way in Lumo.
The installation is funded by TechArt project. TechArt Project is an ERDF project during Jan 1st, 2021 until 31st Dec 2022. Project is funded by the Council of Oulu Region.

- Design: KOMIA Ventures Oy / NFTstore.Gallery
- Location: Rotuaari Square
An enchanting, living gallery of digital NFT art where works of local and international artists are showcased. The gallery includes a colourful array of visual art i.a. Ville Kuusilehto, DETBITE, Lauri Ahtinen, Christelle Mas, Thibault Messac, and many more!
The installation is funded by TechArt project. TechArt Project is an ERDF project during Jan 1st, 2021 until 31st Dec 2022. Project is funded by the Council of Oulu Region.

- Design: Belenos Group of Arts
- Location: Kirkkokatu 9
- In collaboration: LähiTapiola Pohjoinen
Moving light installation Aurora brings the northern solar winds to life. In the work, the shades of the northern lights shine in the wings of the fantastical performers that arise in a blaze after dark. The light performance among the audience stops the viewer for a while, offering a thrilling experience of beautiful lights and colours carried out by charming light characters.

- Design: Arttu Nieminen
- Location: Oulu Cathedral, Kirkkokatu 3 A
- In collaboration: Oulu Cathedral Parish
A neurofilm that dives into a mental weave of crown snow. A sight where the awareness of humanity reaches for the skies. The experimental video installation combines flowing images, hypnotic sound design, and recitation. The mantra of the soundtrack adapts Biblical quotes about the tower of Babylon. The crown snow scenery flows into the spectator’s consciousness. Forest appears as fabrics of the mind. Rough cuts that echo the rhythm of breathing bring the viewer from the wilderness into the middle of the racket of a metropolis. Flashing in between, symbols and graphs are like the verses of an audiovisual spell.
The work constitutes a memorable experimental movie from religions, rites, and the montage. It is like a sight or a spell that aims to implant vigour for change. Oulu Cathedral offers a spectacular setting for the all-encompassing experience.

- Design: Arthur van der Zaag, Copenhagen Lighting Studio (DEN)
- Location: Hupisaaret Park
The wonderful play between light, colour, and nature forms THE COLOUR CUBE.
Together with the geometric shape, the shadow pattern creates a contrast which, along with the natural background, creates a vibrant play of light and texture. Sometimes ecstatic and vibrant and then again slow and meditative, THE COLOR CUBE creates a joyous celebration of light at Hupisaaret Park.

- Design: 3rd year adult students of visual arts from Oulu Academy Aiku group
- Location: Hupisaaret Park
Kurkistus (“the Peek”) is a three-dimensional ensemble in which metal and glass meet. The central theme of the work is cooperation and people coming together. Even though we are individuals, we are here together. One can peek inside the work and see the gathering of different individuals, as in a shared world. Cooperation brings creativity and wellness, but it can also be difficult. Communal and unifying factors are preconditions for the survival of all of us. Time goes by – you choose how to use it.

- Design: Wadessa Oy
- Location: Hupisaaret Park
- In collaboration: Hammarin Sähkö Oy
Take a moment to step aside from the walkway and sit down to enjoy warm drinks among the lights. Open every evening until 9 p.m.

- Design: light designer Esa Horttanainen of A-Insinöörit and produced by A-Insinöörit for the festival.
- Location: Hupisaaret Park
Our unique Earth has turned on its emergency blinkers. In the darkness of space, our world still looks blue, but for how long?
Inclusive light installation “The Blue” is a wake-up call to the environment and climate crisis that is rapidly changing our earth, water, and air.
On the path of Lumo Light Festival – on the ground, in the air, and in the water – you can notice orange lights that resemble the emergency blinkers of a car. Specific locations are not disclosed, so you must discover the blinkers along the way. At the end of the path, there is a brightly lit orange circle. Look at it for a while and then turn your eyes at the sky, to allow your brain to create an after image of our blue, unique Earth for which we all are responsible.

- Design: Niko Tiainen
- Location: Hupisaaret Park, the duck pond
The visuals for the work have been created from algorithm-based codes which have then been edited into a video installation lasting 7 minutes and 56 seconds.
The word “translucens” is latin for translucent, something one can feel but also something that is not there. The work uses a non-linear storytelling method, mixing in the Kuleshov effect in which different pictures and videoclips are combined and the actual whole story is formed in the viewer’s mind. This kind of form slightly resembles the structure of REM sleep. In a classical sense, it could be compared to an impromptu composition technique, in which short improvised tunes are ultimately mixed into a coherent and refined composition.
The work combines theoretical mathematical shapes (like the tesseract) with concrete biological shapes like water.
The soundscape for Translucens is constructed layer by layer from several drone and granular synthesizer sounds. There is no concrete melody in the work but rather soundscapes that create contrasts with one another. The soundscapes create light dissonances, that are not completelely deconstructed at any stage of the show. A low, constant tune keeps the entirety together and does not release the viewer from its grasp.

- Design: Those Guys Lighting (LV)
- Location: Hupisaaret Park
Light is a vibration. Just like sound and everything else in the universe. Every imaginable thing consists of vibrations. On the Wave of Light is an interactive 100 meters long installation that shows the vibration of Light. Light that follows and protects us, one just needs to notice it. Once a person passes a light stick, it detects the presence of the person and activates the light. After the person is no longer in front of the light stick, it slowly fades out, creating a light trail effect behind the person. This installation brings up topics about Light both as a physical phenomenon and a spiritual metaphorical phenomenon. On the Wave of Light is created by Those Guys Lighting, an avant-garde light art studio in Riga, Latvia.

- Design: Katja Heitmann (NED)
- Location: Linnansaari
Requiem for an eternal dying swan. For iTernity is an audiovisual installation based on the famous ballet solo 'The Dying Swan'. Now this swan is uploaded in the virtual 'cloud', where she is everywhere and dances forever. But, like everything on the internet, you now need a screen to see her. Can you catch the dance of the dying swan? Try to follow her and maybe you will start to dance with her.

- Design: Ghost Project
- Production and realisation: Sun Effects Oy
- Location: Linnansaari
The work is an ensemble of iconic sunsets. The installation, as seen through Venetian blinds and a candied filter, plays with the subject of natural versus artificial. The modern man keeps on seeking instant gratification by saturating the digital environment with image-correcting filters. Do we still know how natural phenomena should really look like?

- Design: Mollu Heino
- Location: Linnansaari
The work is inspired by the themes of modern life and springs. The tools for this are the buckets used as the installation’s construction material. They create a passage through shining pillars. The work acts as a source of light as well as a metaphor for different springs which we are trying to reach.

- Design: Juha Forsander
- Production and realisation: Sun Effects Oy
- Location: Oulu Library façade
As a child, Juha Forsander got acquainted with the concrete suburbs of the 1970s, along with their neighbouring forests. In Forsander’s opinion, concrete is a beautiful and underrated surface material and the brutalist architecture of the 70s is a special inspiration for him.
”Enchanted Concrete” draws its inspiration from the concrete suburbs and surrounding forests of Forsander’s childhood, linking the concrete surface with Finnish forest landscape.

- Design: Anna-Mari Nousiainen, Tiina Vehkaperä, John Collingswood & Jared van Earle
- Location: Oulu Library
In a backstreet of mid-20th century Paris sat a run-down and cheap hotel. No. 9 Rue Git-le-Coeur only provided hot water 3 days a week when all 42 rooms shared a single bathtub. The building did not even have a name until it became home to a group of international visionaries, rebels, and hipsters – the poets, musicians, and artists who named it The Beat Hotel.
Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William Burroughs, and an extended family of Beat Generation artists lived and worked there between 1957 and the hotel’s closure in 1963.
Reflecting the collaborative energy of the creatives who lived there, four international artists come together in Oulu Library to work together on an immersive installation. Taking inspiration from old photos and writings about the hotel, the poems and paintings of the residents, the techniques of the Beat Poets, and adding contemporary references and technology, The Beat Hotel brings together history and future, art, light, and literature.

- Design: Arttu Nieminen
- Location: Oulu Library
This decorative installation enlivens the concrete elements of the festival library. Abstract movement is like breathing tissue of the Universe. The work encapsulates Nieminen’s interest in giving a new life to bleak architectural elements by means of image projection.

The work is carried out in cooperation between the musical pedagogy, dance teacher education, and communications studies programmes of the Cultural Studies Unit at Oulu University of Applied Sciences.
- Director of music: Jussi Tuohino
- Director of dance: Petri Kauppinen
- Director of visuals: Petri Kulju
- Light design: Erkka Haavisto
- Technical execution: Pasi Tyybäkinoja
- Sound engineering: Mikko Bergström
- Producer: Milla-Maija Kemppainen
- Location: Oulu Library
What happens when letters and symbols escape? What if concepts and words explode? What kind of information dust will it create? How can the past and present find structure if all stories are reduced to atoms? Is it possible to foresee where letters and symbols go? Will some force or being rearrange these runaways into new stories? Is there a new alternative for the galaxy torn apart by misinformation, where information is built anew, and humanity can tell unbroken stories once again?

- Design: Alexander Reichstein
- In collaboration: Oulun Liikekeskus ry
- Location: Ahtisaari Square
Light festivals happen at night, but night is the time for sleeping. We dream when we sleep, and sometimes we fly when we are dreaming. It is fascinating how a sleeping person’s body often resembles someone who really is flying, jumping, running, and climbing. My sculptures depict different people asleep, men, women, and children lying on pillows, sometimes covered by blankets, but out of their beds, floating above us. They are fashioned from galvanized steel wire, and therefore quite firm, light, and transparent. Sprayed with a special paint, the steel wire glows at night when bathed in ultraviolet light. Figures resemble 3-D drawings, and merge with the surrounding environment.
The installation is on display from Nov 18, 2022 until Jan 6, 2023.

- Design: Artist Pia Leppänen and lighting designer Indrek Virronen, communal art project 2022 with schools from Oulu
- In collaboration: Schools of the City of Oulu
- Location: Cultural Centre Valve
Do we all have good strengths, super powers inside of us? How could one express the powers of a hero?
In this communal art project, participants create a superhero out of themselves, just the kind that they always wished to be. In the workshops, personal strengths are sought and heroic characters made, with great powers that are reflected even in shadow images. The empowering shadow images made by the schools of Oulu, create a communal work of art in the café and lobby of Cultural Centre Valve. The work is open from Nov 11, 2022 until Jan 6, 2023.

Guided Lumo Walking Tour
- Sat 19 Nov at 4 p.m. (in Finnish)
- Sun 20 Nov at 4 p.m. (in English)
Guidance by Architect SAFA Henrika Pihlajaniemi.
The popular walking tours to the many light installations in the city are organised also this year. The duration of the tour is about one and half hours. No registration is needed but prepare yourself for the tour by downloading and installing a ZOOM app to your smart phone and taking headphones with you in order to listen to the guiding. Remember to dress up warmly!
Tour starts at: Kauppurienaukio, near shopping centre Valkea
Permanent light installations

- Design: Ville Tanhuala
- Commissioned by: Oulun Infra
On 21 June 2021, the Ahti storm blew down the massive Berlin poplar tree on Lohipadonniemi in Raatti. A year later, the poplar was carved into a piece of art on location by artist Ville Tanhuala. The artwork represents the dialogue between nature and urban living, including the cultural identity and history of Oulu. The poplar was carved using a variety of tools. The piece is estimated to last several years where it is. The tree is lighted by LED lights.

- Design: Arttu Nieminen, Johan Pietarinen and Jan-Erik Leutola
- Commissioned by: Pohjois-Suomen opiskelija-asuntosäätiö sr
Inner Glow is a permanent collaborative installation created by Arttu Nieminen, Johan Pietarinen and Jan-Erik Leutola. It colours the concrete walls at the ends of the university campus buildings. The shape of the installations summons viewers to get in touch with their inner sensations, guided by the abstract light setting. At the core of the light sculptures are empathy, joy, and an inner glow. Each one of the three pieces is an arrangement of its own, with ever-changing reflections of light through prisms on the concrete.
Regional events

Lintulampi Residents’ Society
Time: Friday 18 Nov at 6 p.m.–7.30 p.m.
Location: Höyhtyä shopping mall
- 6 p.m. Tulikukka Fire Show
- Free glogg and sausages
Time: Saturday 19 Nov at 4 p.m.–5.30 p.m.
Location: Lintulampi mound
- Orienteering path in the dark (bring your own flashlights)
- 5 p.m. Tulikukka Fire Show
- Free juice and gingerbread cookies

Martinniemi Village Society, Maakinen Martinniemi, Valve city district culture and J.A. Mäki / Aura
- Time: Sat 19 Nov at 3 p.m., village and path lighted on 18–20 November
- Location: Kurtinhauta nature and culture path, Luotsiasemantie 83, Martinniemi
On the Pölökkypää path in the coastal woods of Kurtinhauta, you can meet Pölökkypää sculptures lighted by natural fire and tealights, along with wind chimes made from recycled materials. They bring peculiar nuances to the soundscape of humming wind, rushing sea and tinkling ice. At the path’s opening event, the story of Pölökkypää characters is narrated by means of verbal art and music. The village society serves coffee and hot juice at an outdoor fireplace. Along the path, there is the Anchor of Hope where anyone can bring their own candle in memory of those who have gone away to distant lands. Tulikukka fire show at 4 p.m.

Light art exhibition by visual art students of Oulu Art School
- Time: Fri–Sun 18–20 Nov at 4 p.m.–10 p.m.
- Location: Kirkkokatu end of Nuottasaari Building (Isokatu 94), art classroom windows
Can light be found in darkness? What kind of pictures can be drawn with light?
“Halloo, onks valloo?” exhibition studies what can be achieved with only a tiny glimpse of light, and what can be drawn with light. Come and peek at the twinkling exhibition through the windows of the classrooms at Oulu Art School. The artwork has been created by visual art students at the school, aged between 7 and 20 years.
An open non-stop-light art workshop for children and youth is arranged on Friday 18 November between 4 p.m.–9 p.m. at Nuottasaari Building. Come and create your own luminous badge!

- Time: Fri-Sun 18-20 Nov at 4 p.m.-10 p.m.
- Location: Kaijontupa, Kalevalantie 5, Kaijonharju
Message in a bottle for the future, a communal artwork: the children of Toiveiden Torstai from Kaijonharju with workshop counsellors Riikka Kontio, Minna Mikkonen, Kulttuuriosuuskunta Ilme, and district culture of Valve.
During the year 2022, participants of the communal project at Toiveiden Torstait visual and literary art workshops have been dreaming about the future of Kaijonharju as well as their own. Their wishes have been sent as messages in bottles to the future.
During the Lumo Light Festival, the sea of the work comes to life in the magnificent glass stairwell of Kaijontupa.
Video light installation: media artist Pirjo Lempeä