Rauma Rising

Rauma has sneakily grown into one of the most follow worthy places for light and media art in Finland. The ambitious Lumen, headed by Annukka Ketola, has grown into a very interesting light art festival in just a few years, and now there’s a new twist in the (light) artsy life of Rauma: Tarvonsaari space for new art. The space is led by the very same Ms. Ketola, and the concept is hers and Mollu Heino’s. The idea, briefly, is to gather professionals of different art genres in the same house and see what kind of synergies arise organically.

The house has indeed found its new users among the local artists. And yes, there is a light art bent here: many of the artists having their new studios in Tarvonsaari work with light, or light as well. Exhibits: Mollu Heino, Helena Hietanen, Jaakko Niemelä and Niko Tiainen. The last one is more of a general media art kind of guy, but I still count him in. Tiainen is also one of the forces behind Tarvonsaari’s new rise, including the idea for the Space Full of Light exhibition, the reason for my visit.

Mollu Heino's piece in the exhibition

Tila täynnä valoa (Space Full of light) is an exhibition of media art by local artists. It consists of light and video artworks by Mari Aspola, Mollu Heino, Kosti Koskinen, Niko Tiainen and Vilma Wallenström, with a guest appearance by a plant called Phil. The main attraction is the room with several immersive projection works back-to-back. The speciality here is that the room hasn’t been neutralised into a white cube, but the structures are left unhidden, becoming part of the projections. Some of the artists have played with that fact and some ignored it, but it does make a difference. A difference that I enjoyed very much.

In addition to the immersive extravaganza, there are a few smaller artworks on display. Mollu Heino studies reflections in her two pieces, Niko Tiainen lets us mold a white ethereal blob and adjust lights by petting a plant in his interactive artworks and artist Vilma Wallenström’s shares her illustrations of peace in water to three screens. The variety of the artworks shows the multi-talentedness of the artst roster of Rauma brilliantly!

Mollu Heino plays with shadow as well as with light.
The rotating pedestal of the construction makes the shadow
stretch and reflections move around the space.

I didn't mind watching the blob blobbing away on it's own,
but it was more fun after I noticed the controls!

Petting Phil makes the colours change

Vilma Wallenström showed a few screenfull's of beautiful illustrations,
this being the most watery of them.

Having grass roots activity such as Rauma now has, is crucial for the development of light art. It brings artists together, provides them with basic structures to develop and display new pieces, and a wonderful space to concentrate on their work. It is also a great opportunity for Rauma, light being a thing strongly alluring people and basically making life wonderful. I hope these strong sprouts of future fame don’t go unnoticed by the powers that be in Rauma!

The Neo-Renaissance style Tarvonsaari building is a former school,
awesomely old-fashioned and stately, with high ceilings and
agglomerated furniture from the years past. A perfect place for culture, that is.