Open 360° / VR documentation
A SCENE, 2021
Site-specific video installation
A video projector, sound speakers, media player, and a bench
24-hour loop
A Scene invites visitors to immerse themselves in a nocturnal landscape in which every sea mark light around Vallisaari Island is assigned a particular musical note. Each light flashes at its own rhythm, creating a musical composition that slowly unfolds apace with the cycle of daylight.
The video documentation of the installation was filmed at solar midnight during the summer solstice, the day of peak sunlight in the northern hemisphere, when light conditions remain stable for half an hour. The video imperceptibly begins at the very moment that summer begins its slow metamorphosis into autumn.
A Scene is integrated with the architecture and milieu of the powder magazine, creating a space in which inexorable change and ostensible stillness coexist. Visitors look through the window and see an ordinary seascape dotted with solar-powered, autonomous technology, while also seeing one scenario of the future.
In addition to the installation on Vallisaari Island, the work comprises a second part which can be viewed after dusk on the observatory hill in Kaivopuisto Park at times of good visibility. On the hilltop, the sea mark lights are momentarily synchronized with the musical rhythms; they meet for a fleeting moment, and then the connection vanishes, over and over. The work can be accessed online at www.ascene.fi.
The work was produced with the kind support of the Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike), Uusimaa Regional Fund of the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Greta and William Lehtinen Foundation.
Commissioned by HAM / Helsinki Biennial 2021.
Photos: HAM / Maija Toivanen (last photo), other photos courtesy of the artists.