Curators

The 2024 festival is organised and produced by Helsinki Events Foundation. Lux Helsinki’s artistic director is Juha Rouhikoski, whose curator team also includes Matti Jykylä, Mia Kivinen, Jyrki Sinisalo and Jere Suontausta.

Matti Jykylä is a Finnish lighting designer and artist. Jykylä is the founder of the Sun Effects design collective. 

Mia Kivinen is an MA level lighting designer and curator. She has earlier curated the Lyhtypuisto and Ilon kuvia works for the Senate Square in Lux Helsinki. For her, the best thing in Lux Helsinki has been listening to how you can say “Kato nyt totakin!” in different intonations. Kivinen is a founder member of the Finnish Light Art Society FLASH and teaches light art to all types of audiences. Her hobbies are light art travel and writing about it. If Kivinen doesn’t talk about light art for 15 minutes, she’s probably dozed off.

Juha Rouhikoski is Lux Helsinki’s artistic director and curator. He holds a Master’s degree in theatre and drama and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. He works as production manager at Verkatehdas in Hämeenlinna, and he is passionate about exercise, fly fishing and self-development. “As Lux Helsinki’s artistic director, I have an important and high-profile opportunity to promote light art in Finland and beyond. Lux Helsinki is a light art festival pioneer that’s highly regarded internationally. My aim is to help make Lux the most interesting and attractive light art festival in the world.”

Jyrki Sinisalo is a light artist and curator. He holds a Master of Theatre Arts in Lighting Design. Sinisalo has worked in the arts for almost 40 years and is a founding member of the Finnish Light Art Society FLASH. He has curated exhibitions of visual and light art. His curatorship of Lux Galleries is a great opportunity to showcase light art suitable for gallery spaces in Lux. “My own light works strongly reflect my work in theatre, a mix of visual art and stage performance,” says Sinisalo.

Jere Suontausta is a multidisciplinary artist from Helsinki and Jyväskylä with a Master of Theatre Arts. Over the years he has been involved in Lux Helsinki as an audience representative, artist and now as a member of the curatorial team. As curator of the Finnish Light Art Society FLASH, Suontausta’s aim is to present both works that have been previously unresolved and boldly completely new experiences. In her curatorial work, he is fascinated by enabling sudden and subtle dialogues between works and spaces. The power of event light art lies in the transformation of a familiar and familiar environment from the everyday to something else.

The Finnish Light Art Society FLASH was founded in 2017 to promote Finnish light art and artists both at home and internationally. The society’s aims are to bring together light artists from across the disciplines, make light art more accessible to audiences, promote opportunities for professional development for light artists and to disseminate information about light art to event organisers and the public alike.