Lumiere, the UK’s largest light festival, is returning to Durham for the fifth time this weekend! Sadly, I did not manage to buy tickets before they sold out, so I won’t be expecting much out of my weekend. Being excluded, however, has made me very nosy about what wonders the event has to offer. Artichoke, the producers of the festival, have promised a festival of superlatives this year, adopting the motto of “Bigger: Bolder: Brighter!”. The city will be lit up with 29 artworks using the medium of light to completely transform the environment.
Here are some of the highlights of the expected program (pun intended):
Interactive
Watch out for ‘Colour by Light’, an interactive experience inviting audiences to use torches or smartphones as a paintbrush to decorate their surroundings in light graffiti by Stockholm-based art production company, Floating Pictures.
Wild
The Durham University Botanic Garden will be re-imagined by the collective of artists making up For the Birds, utilising over twenty light and sound installations. Visitors are promised a meditative and immersive journey in through the wilderness. Slightly off the beaten track, this one sounds especially beautiful and should not be missed!
One of our Own
Finola Finn, a Durham PhD student in History who won a commission by BRILLIANT alongside four other local artists, will suspend a throbbing red heart in the inside of The Count’s House. The work has been titled ‘Know Thyself’ and explores timeless issues inspired by her research in history involving people’s sense of self.
The Castle
Artist Hannah Fox will project the faces of local people from all walks of life onto the walls of Durham Castle in her project, ‘Our Moon’. The faces of 80 Durham residents will be shown via video mapping. I’m very happy to see the inclusion of the local community on such a large scale.
The Riverside
Expect Finnish light artist Kari Kola to be turning the riverside of the Wear into a dreamlike wonderland using a bespoke soundscape and light.
‘Light is Here’ by Kari Kola
The artist has worked with existing landmarks and –scapes before, as for example in ‘Light is Here’, an installation that seeks to create a “visually enchanting appearance” for the UNESCO Fontenoy building in Paris. Kola cites his life in the North as a major influence on his work – perhaps this will also translate in his installation for Lumiere, forming an interesting dialogue between two different kinds of Northern heritage.