Lux Söderlångvik 2025: Alexander Salvesen et al.
10.11.2025
Alexander Salvesen
Relations of Colours
Ecce homo
A Defining Moment in Time
Alexander Reichstein – Out of sight
Petra Barre-Cygnel & Pia Holm: A Winterseed Grows
Petra Barre Cygnel: Wonder – The illumination of Kim Simonsson’s Moss giants
Alexander Salvesen
The main artist of Lux Söderlångvik 2025 is Alexander Salvesen (b. 1990), whose vibrant light works extend across the manor park and the walls of the main building, opening up to the viewer as both intense and meditative experiences.
The main work of the light event is a lavish triptych designed especially for Lux Söderlångvik and projected onto the manor’s southern façade. It unfolds into almost psychedelic visions of fruit-filled gardens. Through trees and fruits, however, a whole ecosystem is revealed – one that carries thousands of years of cultural meaning. What kinds of religious and cultural interpretations do we carry with us as we tend, shape, and exploit nature for our own needs? The work intertwines our relationship with trees, with the apples hanging from them, and thereby with sin, knowledge, and humanity’s control over nature.
The three-part composition is hand-painted on glass and projected onto the façade using so-called Pani projectors, that is, large-format slide projectors. The Pani projection system was originally developed in Austria in the 1910s by Ludwig Pani, and became common in theatres and opera houses during the 1950s to create moving and dynamic light settings. Although digital technology has since replaced analog projections, they are still valued in light art for their unique light quality and the organic appearance of hand-painted images.
A recurring theme in Salvesen’s art is human perception. Through this lens, he also explores our relationship with nature and the morality of our actions — as in the light installation A Defining Moment In Time, located near the shoreline. This 12-metre-long work composed of coloured lines plays with our depth perception and carries a serious message about global warming. The coloured lines, representing annual average temperatures, form a barcode that can be read as the words “Time Does Not Move – You Do.”
At the entrance gates of the manor, Relations of Colour examines the perception of colours and their interrelationships. The LED-based sculpture’s slowly changing hues create a variety of colour combinations. The work raises the question: how does the colour we perceive as green behave when the colour next to it shifts from orange to blue? The piece reveals that nothing in the world is absolute – everything happens and is experienced in relation to its surroundings, whether it is colour or life itself.
A unifying thread running through Salvesen’s works at Söderlångvik is the human interpretations (and misinterpretations) that arise from our sensory experiences – and, more broadly, throughout history. Salvesen asks: what traces do our individual and collective sensory and cultural interpretations leave behind? At the same time, the works remind us of the relativity of perception – even the “greenness” of green changes depending on its neighbouring colours.
Alexander Salvesen (b. 1990, Turku, Finland) is a visual artist who works boldly across different techniques and materials. His art has been shown in galleries, museums, and at numerous festivals both in Finland and abroad – including Lux Helsinki and Flow Festival. Salvesen is among the rare Finnish artists who work with Pani projections, and he has created several works using this analog projection technique.
alexandersalvesen.com
Photo: Mateus Männinen
Relations of Colour
2018
LED, aluminium
We don’t see the world as it is, but as an intricate web of relations between everything. The eye is in constant motion trying to capture its environment, and creates together with the brain an ever changing view where we no longer can be sure where the change is happening.
Ecce Homo
Alexander Salvesen
Ecce Homo
2025
3-channel large scale analog dia projection
The three part artwork from left to right:
- ”Poduxitque Dominus Deus de humo omne ligum pulchrum visu et ad vescendum suave, lignum etiam vitae in medio paradisi lignumque scientiae boni et mali.”
– Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, Vulgate, late 4th century.
(“And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” – Kings James Bible,1611.)
- “Flores peccati horti vetiti”
(The Flowers of Sin in the Forbidden Garden)
- Errare humanum est, perseverare autem diabolicum
(To err is human, but to persist in error is diabolical)
A Defining Moment In Time
2021
LED, Painting on wood
size: 160 x 1200 x 10cm
“This is it. If humanity wants to survive into the next millennium we need to survive the next 100 years first – without crashing. And when we (hopefully) look back at these few years right now, it was what we did, how we changed, that shaped how we solved things. Be here – think ahead.
Most of all, we need to learn to let go. This is hard. Still, you need to learn to let go. Because there will be even a lot more letting go in the future if we do not act now. Learn to let go of oil. Learn to let go of other sentient animals as your main source of food. Learn to let go of violating the rights of indigenous peoples, and of exploiting the land, the seas and the air we breathe. This is not about light, this is not about art. This is not even about me or you. This is about sustaining the still existing life on this planet we call home.
Time itself doesn’t solve any problems.
Time does not move.
You do.
And you are here right now. Focus on what you see and the perception of light as it plays and creates new shades on the surface in front of you. Think about the distribution of heat. Think about colour and how it radiates diversity on a black and white surface. The backdrop is a barcode created by capitalist thought for the use of global markets in the name of efficiency and speed. It’s a language for machines.
Now move.”
Alexander Reichstein
Out of Sight
2025
Steel wire, steel mesh, fluorescent paint and UV light
Mother Nature is disappointed and doesn’t even want to look at our human deeds. The giant translucent face of a woman glows in the darkness, but her eyes are closed. In addition, 16 pairs of open human and animal eyes are part of this installation.
Petra Barre-Cygnel & Pia Holm
A Winterseed Grows
2023
Metal mesh, metal wire, glass, and lightweight concrete.
Vintervilan är viktig för växtvärlden och vissa frön behöver en köldperiod för att gro. Vi vill visa på det spirande liv ett litet frö kan gömma inom sig under den kalla vintern.
Talvilepo on monelle kasville tärkeä vaihe ja kylmäkäsittely on oleellista monen siemenen itävyydelle. Haluamme tuoda esiin pienen, itävän elämän, joka piilee jokaisessa siemenessä.
The winter rest is important for many plants and a cold period can be vital for the germination of seeds. We want to show the little sprouting life a seed can hide inside the shell.
Petra Barre-Cygnel
Wonder – The illumination of Kim Simonsson’s Moss giants
2025
LED Floodlight
If the forest feels frightening in the dark, imagine all the beauty that lives there.
Don’t let the forest scare you – let it fill you with wonder.
Lux Söderlångvik is open 15.11–14.12.2025 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
In the museum you can still visit Kim Simonsson’s exhibition Waking dreams and other stories.
Museum opening huors during lux: Wed–Sun 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.