Ireland usually turns St Patrick’s Day – 17th March, in case you have just arrived from Outer Space – into a mini-festival. Events that include book discussions, lectures and how-to-do-it arts and crafts, as well as some serious inspection of Irish potables, and music and marches, go on for days. This year, everything was cancelled a week before.
But Galway is one of Europe’s 2020 Capitals of Culture – the other is Rijeka, in Croatia. Galway commissioned this amazing light-work, above. Called Savage Beauty, it is by Finland’s Kari Kola. He laid a thousand lamps, as a five kilometre cable, along the Lough na Fooey base of Ceann Garbh mountain.
Kari Kola has a plaited beard that falls down to his waist. He is a determined guy. As his website says, his motto is: “Nothing is impossible; it is just a matter of deciding how much you want to use your energy towards achieving it”.
He has been interested in light for as long as he can remember. “Light is everywhere and it affects the world and our daily lives in many ways. I’m from Finland and here the autumns and the winters last long and these seasons are very dark. I wanted to teach myself to use light to be able to utilize the darkness that surrounds me during those seasons. That’s why I became who I am. A Light Artist.
“I have worked with light for around 17 years and I have generated over 2,000 projects on a leading role. I’ve worked with many historical castles and places and I’m specialized in working with these type of vulnerable sites. I have created light installations to several unique sites like UNESCO headquarters, Stonehenge, Villa de Laak, Saana Mountain. I have worked both as a Technical and an Artistic Leader in several productions including festivals, operas, musicals, multi-art performances and opening ceremonies. These projects have been executed on both, a national and international level.
“Light is a really powerful tool and I believe that we can draw focus to any site, city or value using light art. My plan is to work on an unseen scale with unique sites and to push the limits of light art into new dimensions. This will create a new level of impact in raising awareness on many topics.”
worth checking his website, www.karikola.com
