Kari Kola, an artist from Finland, used blue lights and myriad emerald to change an area of Ireland’s Connemara mountains into – as he claims – the most significant site-specific light piece of art ever created. The Savage Beauty installation involves 1,000 huge lamps scattered over three miles of the Irish mountain range in the north, Connemara.
The intentional highlight of this mesmerizing landscape, the blue and green light, was exhibited in the loch and illuminated the low-lying clouds.
An artist got chosen to create and design the artwork as part of the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture events. The name of the installation comes from a quote by Oscar Wilde (Irish poet and playwright) – he described Connemara as “a savage beauty.”
Kola says that since he can’t paint with actual paint, he can paint with lights. He created more than 2,000 installations in unparalleled areas. One of them is the Unesco‘s Paris headquarters for the 2015 Year of Light opening and also for the World Heritage Day in 2018 – lighting Stonehenge.
In the interview, Kola shares with us that he thinks that Everything on Earth based on light. He always chooses to work with nature, if he has the chance, as it is, by far, the best art that we possess.
To finalize the entire project, it took 20 km of cables, connected to 16 generators, deposited by a chopper across the mountainside. All of it happened throughout several weeks. Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, self-guided walks for around 20,000 people, got canceled. The light show went privately and got captured in a movie accessible as a “digital edition” without needing to visit the website. Kari Kola is very upset by the cancelation, but he remains hopeful that the digital version will accurately display the art.

Website: www.karikola.com/