ARTISTS LIGHT THE SKIES OF HELSINKI

HeHe : Nuage Vert
22-29 February 2008, Salmisaari, Helsinki, 5pm to 10pm
www.nuagevert.org

At the end of February, Nuage Vert (Green Cloud), a large-scale environmental installation by artist duo HeHe, will be visible in the skies above Ruoholahti in central Helsinki.

Nuage Vert uses the chimney emissions of the Salmisaari power plant as a canvas for illumination. The installation consists of tracking, drawing and projecting a laser image onto the contour of vapour, adjusting its shape and size to the current levels of electricity consumption by the residents in Ruoholahti and neighbouring Lauttasaari. During the event, residents will be asked to consume less, to un-plug their electrical appliances to make the green cloud grow. The chimney and emission are an environmental sculpture and a community measuring tape, but there is an irony here: Nuage Vert aestheticises an icon of industrial pollution while seeking to draw the viewer's critical attention to it. By becoming a sign of wonder, a spectacle, a terrible beauty, a space is opened up for the viewer.

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