FLASH Light Art Biennial

The programme of the free biennial also includes the international FLASH seminar, with Dutch artist and designer Daan Roosegaarde as keynote speaker.

Kätketty kajo invites visitors to experience the northern darkness of November as a space where the boundaries between the familiar and the unknown, the visible and the invisible, begin to blur. The works explore this in-between space through nature, memory and human experience.

The artists in the biennial are Kari Alonen, Siri Haapanen, Mollu Heino, Johanna Häiväoja, Timo Kokko, Anni Laukka, Arttu Nieminen, Jaakko Niemelä, Ilkka Paloniemi, Anu Raatikainen, Alexander Reichstein, Vappu Rossi and Alexander Salvesen.

Curator Oskari Kaarne draws on northern nature and Baltic Finnic mythology for the biennial’s thematic framework.

The main venue is AaltoSiilo in Meri-Toppila, Oulu, an industrial building designed by Alvar and Aino Aalto and a landmark of cultural heritage. The silo’s exceptional structure offers visitors an immersive experience in which the works and the space merge.

In Pikisaari, the works form an experiential light art trail called Art of Darkness. Drawing on Pikisaari’s history and environment, they invite visitors to move through the surroundings with new senses and to find new meanings in a landscape they thought they knew well.

In the city centre, Galleria MABD connects the biennial to the city’s gallery scene. The programme also includes a work on the façade of the Saari Central Library, presented in cooperation with the Lumo light event and on view 19–22 November 2026.

Event information

FLASH Light Art Biennial Kätketty kajo, 7–22 November 2026, Oulu

Venues: AaltoSiilo, Pikisaari nature trail, Galleria MABD and the façade of the Saari Central Library.

Opening hours: daily 5–10 pm. The Saari Central Library façade work is on view 19–22 November as part of the Lumo light event.

Curator tours: 13 November at 5 pm at AaltoSiilo, and 14 November at 5 pm at Galleria MABD, continuing to Pikisaari.

FLASH Seminar: Light Art in Urban Darkness, 20 November 2026

Venue: Tarkastamo, Saaristonkatu 1, Oulu, Finland.

Admission to the biennial exhibitions and the seminar is free.

Cover image: Rajapinta (“Interface”), a work on the Valo, jää (“Light, ice”) light art trail in Pikisaari, Oulu, in February 2026. Artists: Meeri Alatalo, Päivi Paakinaho and Kimmo Hanhela.
photo: Henrika Pihlajaniemi / University of Oulu