Light as Art - L’art de la lumière
International workshop

Valotila_mainos_PDF.pdf  OLLA VALOTILA Exhibition of International Workshop Ground floor Lintulahdenkatu 3 (TeaK/VÄS building) HELSINKI Open 13. – 22.2.2009, Mon-Fri: 11–18, Sat–Sun: 12–16
This exhibition is the result of a workshop initiated by Nathalie Junod-Ponsard, artist and art teacher at Ecole nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs de Paris. Twelve students of ENSAD, TaiK and TeaK, were brought together to in Helsinki to develop artistic visions representing light as physical material. The resulting exhibition consists of twelve spaces that are autonomous visual events and which propose new ways of perceiving light and space.

Schedule_LightasArt_09.pdf

Light in art is traditionally regarded as either a subject of depiction or as a necessity for making works of art visible. In theatre and cinema its role is subordinate to the narrative or dramaturgy of the primary work in question, the play or film. Light is sometimes also used as decoration in the built environment. Light art has however existed as an independent form since the 1960s (e.g. Robert Irwin, Dan Flavin, James Turrell, Bruce Nauman), and the first experiments in this medium date back almost a hundred years.

The purpose of this workshop is to bring this quite seldom experienced art form to the attention of students in the form of a hands-on workshop. The student will thus have the opportunity to concretely acquaint her/himself with the possibilities, theories and traditions of Light art. 

The workshop will be realised as a collaborative joint venture between ENSAD (Ecole nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs), Art department of the School of Visual Culture in University of Art and Design Helsinki (TAiK/Taide), The Scenography department in TaiK and the department of Lighting and sound design at the Theatre Academy (Teak/VÄS).

Coordinators of the workshop at the Finnish end are Senior lecturer Harald Arnkil (VKO/taide) and professor Markku Uimonen (Teak/VÄS). The leader of the workshop is light artist Nathalie Junod-Ponsard, Paris (ENSAD).

Time:
Helsinki: 2. – 13.2.2009
Paris: two weeks in October - November 2009 (exact dates will be announced later)

Teaching language: English

Students:
Teak/VÄS
Nanni Vapaavuori
Jan Fedinger
Jyrki Sinisalo
Juha Rouhikosk

ENSAD
Adeline Charpentier
Cedric Guillermo
Léopold de Moy
Min Ding

TaiK
Kalle Ahonen,
Juhana Hirvonen
Elina Bäckman
Nina Helleland