Media Facades Helsinki

Media Facades Festival Helsinki is a festival of urban media dedicated to presenting media and electronic art projects in public space, organised in Helsinki 2010-15. The festival created new audiences for media art, opened up new experiences of urban space and experimented with participatory dimensions of public space technologies.

The production and presentation of art projects took place within an international collaborative network: the first edition in 2010 was part of  the Media Facades Festival Europe series of events in 7 cities, and in 2012-15 the festival was realized in context of the Connecting Cities network of 11 cities.

The core of the Media Facades programme was formed by a selection of art projects whose development and presentation was enabled by co-production within the international network. In addition, m-cult produced projects in collaboration with local artists. Over 30 new art projects and numerous events and workshops were presented in the festival's 5 editions.

Media Facades Festival Helsinki was a partner festival of the Helsinki Festival and the art projects opened to the public on the Night of the Arts in August. With the Lasipalatsi Square in the city centre as key venue, the events also spread to Kallio, Kontula and other Helsinki locations.

In context of the festival, m-cult developed strategies to engage audiences in media art in public spaces, turning passers-by to active audiences and participants.

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Media Facades Festival detail of LED screen
Kimmo Mustonen

Media Facades Festival Helsinki was produced by m-cult in cooperation with Helsinki Festival, Lasipalatsi Media Centre and other local partners.

The festival was made possible by co-funding from EU Culture Programme and support of the Helsinki Cultural Office, AVEK and the Ministry of Culture and Education.