- The new ten-day festival features a rich programme of professional and public events, embedding art with technology and science through immersive exhibitions, light and sound art, performances, talks and seminars across the city
- Opening on 13 November, Björk will bring her three audiovisual installations to Oulu, following their debut in Reykjavík: Ancestress, Sorrowful Soil and Björk Orkestral, with a DJ set taking place on 15 November
- Oulu’s long history as a technology hub provides a foundation for the festival, building on its 2023 recognition as a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts
- Lumo Art & Tech will become an annual event, launching as a major legacy project of the Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture year
Lumo Art & Tech – a new ten-day international festival exploring the intersection of art and technology – unveils the programme for its inaugural edition, which will unfold across 16 key cultural venues and outdoor locations throughout the city. Exhibitions, festivals and performances spanning light, sound, digital and media art use technology and scientific methods to explore contemporary themes, accompanying talks and seminars led by artists, researchers, curators and technology experts.
Among the key highlights is an exhibition by Icelandic singer Björk, presenting three audiovisual installations, alongside the new TAR Festival – a platform for experimental sound – curated by Antye Greie-Ripatti and Sasu Ripatti, two leading Finnish figures in electronic music. The programme also brings audiences to two of the city’s newest cultural destinations: Tarkastamo, a recently opened cultural event space, and Tiima, Oulu’s new Museum and Science Centre.
Taking place as part of Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture and supported by the City of Oulu, Lumo Art & Tech builds on Oulu’s established Lumo Light Festival to engage international visitors, creative professionals and local residents. The festival is rooted in Oulu’s deep ties to technology and innovation, from its longstanding relationship with Nokia – once the city’s largest employer and a historic “home of radio” – to its evolution as a start-up hub and centre for innovation. In 2023, Oulu became a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as a City of Media Arts.
Public Programme: Festivals, Exhibitions and Performances
Centred on light, sound, digital and media art, the festival will activate and illuminate the city during the dark northern November month. Lumo Art & Tech incorporates three further festivals – Lumo Light Festival, the new TAR Festival and FLASH5 Light Art Biennial – which take place at multiple venues across the city. The fifth edition of FLASH will extend into the iconic AaltoSiilo, designed by Alvar and Aino Aalto, and include Finnish artists Jaakko Niemelä, previously exhibited at the Helsinki Biennial, Anu Raatikainen and Johanna Häiväoja, among others.
Meanwhile, an exhibition from Björk presents an immersive audiovisual journey into her music, including Sorrowful Soil and Ancestress, both of which were composed and arranged by Björk in honour of her mother, and Björk Orkestral. Spanning sound, moving image and spatial installation, the exhibition reflects Björk’s boundary-pushing practice, where art, nature and technology meet and converge. The sound installation Sorrowful Soil is realised using 30 Finnish audio technology company Genelec’s loudspeakers, while Björk Orkestral is experienced as a dedicated listening experience in Genelec’s state-of-the-art listening room. Furthermore, Björk will perform a special DJ set at the new waterfront venue Tarkastamo on 15 November, transporting audiences across genres, cultures and continents through music.
Exhibitions will use technology and scientific research to explore our relationship with the natural world, from the Arctic climate to the cosmos. Arctic Clouds by Helsinki- and London-based artist Josefina Nelimarkka, merges mist, glass, water and ice with real-time climate data from Oulu and Arctic research stations. At Oulu Cathedral, The Logos by British-German artist and creative technologist Andrew Melchior transforms more than 4,000 cosmic signals into spatial audio, bringing astrophysics into dialogue with sound and space.
The full list of exhibitions includes:
The Kuutar Garden by Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Botanical Garden, University of Oulu (until 30 Nov)
The Lights and Shadows: An Art Lighting Exhibition, University of Oulu (4 Nov – 31 Dec)
FLASH5 Light Art Biennial, multiple venues (7 – 22 Nov)
TAR Festival, multiple venues (11 – 15 Nov)
Arrival, Oulu Art Museum (12 – 15 Nov)
Arctic Clouds by Josefina Nelimarkka, Cultural Centre Valve (13 – 24 Jan 2027)
Ancestress, Sorrowful Soil & Björk Orkestral by Björk, Pekuri Shopping Centre (13 Nov – 31 Dec)
Beyond the Sky by Oulu Sinfonia, Oulu Hall, (19 – 21 Nov)
Lumo Light Festival, multiple venues (19 – 22 Nov)
The Logos by Andrew Melchior, Oulu Cathedral (until 31 Dec)
PLAY by Fotografiska Tallinn, Pekuri Shopping Centre (until 31 Dec)
Layers in the Peace Machine by Ekho Collective, Oulu City Hall (until 31 Dec)
Earworm, Media Art from Kiasma, Oulu City Hall (until 31 Dec)
Adaptation by Photo North, Oulu Art Museum (16 Oct 2026 –14 Feb 2027)
Aurora Revelare, Museum and Science Centre Tiima (9 Oct 2026 – 9 Oct 2028)
During the course of Lumo Art & Tech, Tarkastamo will host audiovisual performances from international artists including Halina Rice (London), Riccardo Giovinetto (Turin), and Ida Toninato and Pierre-Luc Lecours (Montreal), alongside Finnish artists such as BUCOLIC – Cultural Machines, an experimental ensemble of human performers and robotic folk instruments.
Professional Events: Talks, Seminars and Networking
The professional programme features a series of events where international and Finnish interdisciplinary practitioners share knowledge, exchange ideas and invite conversation. Lumo Talks takes place from 17–20 November; across these days talks, panels and workshops will run at Tarkastamo, underpinned by core themes including the Future of Work, Sustainability, and the Art of Innovation, featuring keynote speeches from Takashi Kudo, member of the widely acclaimed art collective teamLab, and Gabrielle Jenks of Factory International, a creative company and charity.
From 18 – 20 November, AVARA, organised by Oulu University of Applied Sciences, will present its annual flagship Art & Tech programme of talks, discussions, workshops and demonstrations, offering a platform to explore emerging technologies. Taking the theme of ‘Space’ as a departure point, the programme considers the physical, conceptual, virtual, social and cosmic dimensions of art and technology. Speakers and contributors include award-winning art collective Chimerik and neurotech artist Roel Heremans, among others.
Reflecting on the inaugural edition of Lumo Art and Tech Festival, a legacy project for the city, Oulu2026 Programme Manager, Henri Turunen says:
“It is fantastic to see such a rich and diverse art and technology programme come to life in Oulu in the midst of the northern autumn darkness. I hope the festival will leave a lasting legacy for Oulu, inspiring new collaborations, ideas and ways of bringing art and technology together long into the future.”
Most of the festival programme is free to attend, with some events and exhibitions requiring tickets. The full programme can be found here.
The main partner of the festival is Nokia. Other partners include Oulun Pysäköinti, Avidly, Genelec, LähiTapiola, and Oulu University of Applied Sciences (Oamk).
