Cities/YYZ

Now – Mon., Feb. 21
Light exhibit
Free
Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay W
harbourfrontcentre.com/series/nordic-lights

From now until Family Day, bundle up in your warmest coat and immerse yourself (for free!) in the magic of the Nordic region at Nordic Lights, a colourful light display hosted at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre. Part of Nordic Bridges, a year-long, Canada-wide cultural exchange, Nordic Lights combines the illuminating efforts of artists from Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. There’s LED swings, huge wall projections and a massive light cube all destined to thaw your winter blues – and light up your socials.

NEXT connects with Norwegian artist Anastasia Isachsen of Fjord Studio, who co-curated the installation. She shares her curation process, the inspiration behind her own piece and her hopes for future cultural collaborations.

This is the first time all participating countries have collaborated on one lights installation. What was that collaboration process like? What made you choose the final light pieces? 

When Harbourfront Centre invited our Fjord Studio to curate an outdoor light art exhibition as a part of Nordic Bridges program, we at once saw it as an opportunity to expand this project into something bigger, something beyond the exhibition in Toronto. At Fjord Studio we often try to see how our projects can create bigger ripple effects – for audiences, places and light art as an art form.

As Nordic Bridges is a program representing Nordic culture in Canada, it was a great opportunity for the first time to reach out to our Nordic colleagues and invite them for a collaboration, bringing Nordic light art to the global scene. Starting as a light art exhibition in Toronto, Nordic Lights has grown into an international collaboration between five countries and four Nordic light art festivals.

Together with our Nordic partner festivals, we started exploring the ideas of Nordicness, the Nordic identity and values and how we could represent them through public art. Although as lead curators, we had the initial ideas about the program, we have invited the curators from our partner festivals to come with suggestions for artworks and artists that they felt would represent their countries in an interesting and engaging way.

There were many interesting suggestions and discussions as each of our festivals has its own unique approach and focus. Yet, in the final selection, it was important that Nordic Lights would become a strong and holistic exhibition, presenting different artistic expressions and techniques. It was also important that the installations would suit well to the space at Harbourfront Centre’s compound and offer audiences a varied, yet consistent experience. In this regard, the inputs and suggestions by the Harbourfront Centre’s team were invaluable as they know their site and their audiences well. On their initiative, we have also selected a Canadian artwork, emphasizing the parallels in our Nordic cultures.

Now these ideas have become a reality, the installations are open to the public, and we are proud to see that Nordic Lights has become a powerful, expressive exhibition with distinct Nordic aesthetics – offering both an engaging, emotional, and thought-provoking experience.

What was the inspiration for your light installation? 

I am participating as an artist from Norway, representing my own light art festival Fjord Oslo. My piece is a video mapping projection on the wall of the Power Plant, called Equinox. Equinox is an abstract audio-visual reflection about light and darkness – in the world around us and in ourselves. And about that unique moment of equinox when the two are in balance. I believe the dynamic between the dark and light forces is more relevant now than ever in the background of the challenging situation in the world. Equinox is a reminder that light and darkness are neither positive nor negative, but it is the dynamics between the two that bring around change.

Equinox uses elements from other art forms that I love: contemporary dance and contemporary nu-jazz and features a score by the acknowledged Norwegian musician and composer and my dear friend, Nils Petter Molvær.

Equinox (as well as the other video artwork we are presenting at the Nordic Lights Gorzi by Finnish artist Outi Pieski) presents not only Nordic visual art, but also music from our countries to the audiences in Toronto.

What do you hope visitors feel when they visit Nordic Lights? What do you hope they take away from the experience? 

We hope they will feel inspired and liberated – Toronto has been in lockdown for so long that just inviting people outside to a collective artistic experience feels very meaningful. We hope to offer an engaging, surprising, and fresh experience of contemporary Nordic art and culture. We hope people of Toronto will find the exhibition an engaging place of emotions and reflections and will share these with each other.

Do you hope to bring these installations to other countries in the future? 

Yes, bringing some of these installations to the participating Nordic light art festivals is a part of our collaboration. After the exhibition in Toronto, the plan is to present these artists and their artworks at the participating light art festivals in the Nordic countries, taking our collaboration further across borders. For instance, at Fjord Oslo we are already looking into how some of these artworks can be a part of our festival program this year.

We are also developing strategies and opportunities to present Nordic light artists internationally. Together with our project partners, we also hope to develop this cooperation further and create new collaborative projects – in Canada, the Nordic countries, but also globally. So, the ripple effects of the Nordic Lights are wide already!