Flow Festival’s praised art program brings forth kinetic sculptures, street art, multimodal installations, and intimate photographs. Timo Viialainen’s hypnotic Seakey (and then I picked up my...) is a set of kinetic sculptures that takes place in the old industrial interior of Tiilikello, and a large work from the Finnish graffiti pioneer, EGS, is painted in the festival area. Janne Ahola’s installation Global Dance distorts the border between real and surreal, and the Jouko Lehtola Foundation presents an exhibition of the late Finnish photographer Jouko Lehtola’s photography.

 

Working on the fields of visual art, performance art, and sound art, the multifaceted artist Timo Viialainen brings a collection of his mixed material works to the beautiful Tiilikello building at Suvilahti. Titled Seakey (and then I picked up my...), his exhibition consists of four sea-themed sculptures combining metal, electromagnetism, sounds, and movement. The result is a mesmerising, gaze-gripping work that captures the viewer’s attention. Viialainen’s conceptual approach provides new layers to the materiality of his work: while the artworks themselves bear a thematic connection to the sea, some of the material for his sculptures have been collected from the shores of Finland and Norway.

 

The pioneering Finnish graffiti artist, EGS, creates a large work at Flow Festival in collaboration with Finland’s largest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. Starting his career in the beginning of the 1980’s as part of Finland’s first wave of graffiti art, EGS has become one of Finland’s internationally most lauded artists with his works being presented in more than 50 different countries. During the past few years, experimenting with techniques such as sculpture and glass art, EGS has become known for his personal variation of world maps, which he uses as a standpoint for his work by blending geographical entities into the letters of his artist name.

 

The video artist Janne Ahola’s installation Global Dance, created together with Flow’s long-time collaborator Sun Effects, is a celebration of a universal language that has brought people together in the form of shared rituals throughout history. In his work, Ahola explores the integration of organic and hand-crafted aesthetics with animation in the context of installation and video art. These same methods are present also in Global Dance.  

 

In honour of the late, beloved photographer Jouko Lehtola, the Jouko Lehtola Foundation delivers a sales exhibition at Flow Festival’s Make Your Mark Gallery. The exhibition presents intimate and emotionally powerful photographs, where Lehtola’s accepting gaze brings forth the true identity of the people he portrayed in his pictures: the young, the underdogs, and the people why chose to go on their own path. The exhibition also presents a unique and carefully produced collection of clothes related to Lehtola’s work.

 

Flow Festival will also feature several works designed by Lauratimantti, also known as Laura Lehtinen, who will also curate the Urban Art collection on display at Flow Festival. Works by 19 artists will be on display around the festival area throughout the weekend. 

 

The thrilling artists behind this year’s Urban Art are Akseli Aro, Graffiti Professors, Fedja Hämäläinen, Paju Kai, Aarni Kapanen, Veera Kesänen, Piia Keto, Konsta Koivisto, Milja Komulainen, Malaika Mollel, Touko Miikkulainen, Noitakallio, Pinja Oja, Valtteri Parikka, Anna Pekkala, Kristo Saarikoski, Aino Salonen, Sanna Vakkilainen, and Sanni Wessman.

Read more about Flow Festival’s art program here.