Kiinteistö Oy Kaapelitalo, Helsinki Dance House Association and Finnish Light Art Society FLASH invite Finnish artists and artists permanently living in Finland to take part in the realization of a permanent light art work at the Dance House Helsinki’s Event Square. Event Square will be the entrance lobby of Dance House Helsinki. It also serves as a foyer and a venue for various occasions. Entries will be accepted from 17 November to 1 December 2020.

Light art work competition at Dance House Helsinki's Event Square

Space and functional description

General

The construction of Dance House Helsinki will be completed at the end of 2021. The dance house is located next to Cable Factory. The premises to be used by Dance House Helsinki will include e.g. two performance halls, a training studio, a restaurant, and Event Square that brings different actors together.

The chief designer of the new Dance House Helsinki building is JKMM Architects' Teemu Kurkela. He has described Dance House Helsinki as follows: “It is a kite defying gravity. An industrial and rough machine rooted in the ground. A magical box that is not ready before dance enters it”.

Event Square

Event Square is the entrance lobby of Dance House Helsinki, through which visitors enter Erkko Stage, Pannuhalli and its basement. It also serves as a gathering space during the intervals between performances. Event Square is well suited for lighter performance productions, cocktail parties, product presentations and small-scale exhibitions, for example.

The space is described as rough, industrial, non-elitist, machinelike, well suited in a factory environment and very robust. The floor is a medium gray industrial concrete floor that could well be seen in a garage. The wall of Pannuhalli is made of original lime sand brick, and is brownish reddish in colour.

The building engineering of the roof and the frame structures of Event Square are painted matt black. Natural light flows into the space from a 2.5 m x 22 m glass roof running along the wall on the side of Pannuhalli. The artificial lighting of the space is implemented in the ceiling with lighting mounted on the rails around the space.

The wall surfaces of Event Square are partly upholstered with blackened steel plates, and some of the wall surfaces in front of the steel plate surfaces have a steel sequin network. The diameter of one sequin is 150 mm. Behind the sequins is a dark steel plate wall. The distance between the perforated sequin surface and the wall behind it is 50 mm. The wall on the side of Pannuhalli is the building’s old exterior wall.

From time to time, a stage will be built in the space with related performance technique. In addition, several truss lines, projectors or speakers may be hung up in the space.

The light art work in Event Square

When planning a light art work that will be displayed in Event Square, it is important to pay attention to the multifunctionality of the space. The work must be positioned in the space in a way that its parts do not limit or hamper the integration of typical performance technical solutions. Among other things, there must be free access to the hanging points, as well as to technical objects on the ceiling that require regular maintenance.

The work should be designed especially as a work that uses light as an instrument of art, so that light is the main material of the work. If the work involves structures that support or reflect light or remind of light sculpture, they must be placed in a way that enables an unobstructed use of the space when technique is used for varied events.

It must also be possible to switch off the light work, if other use of the space requires it. The work must agree with the architectural feeling of the space, as well as highlight the attributes of dance, bodily expression and movement as well as their characteristics.

Light art work competition – CALL FOR COMPETITION (pdf)

Space and functional description (pdf)

Illustration of Event Square (pdf)

Event Square layout and cutaway drawings (pdf)

Questions and answers - the first session 15.7.2020 (pdf)

Questions and answers - the second session 13.11.2020 (pdf)

(Questions and answers in Finnish)