Lyon Light Festival Forum 2019

Over 150 city representatives, artists and light festival professionals from 30 cities around the world participated in the 2019 Lyon Light Festival Forum (LLFF) over the course of three days from 5 – 7 December 2019.

Organised by LUCI Association and the City of Lyon during the Fête des Lumières light festival, the LLFF 2019 included a series of panel discussions and pecha kucha presentations on creative lighting, as well as several networking opportunities.

Karine Dognin-Sauze, Deputy Mayor of Lyon, Vice President of LUCI, emphasises that the LUCI network is a unifying force – a force that builds on complementary perspectives, skills & know-how of each city – to extend the power of light in all its dimensions.

The LUCI President, City of Seoul, represented by Youngsu Kim, Director of Urban Light Policy Division at the Seoul Metropolitan Government, highlights the value of light art in the urban space, bringing new identities to our cities and new dynamism to our streets at night.

Beyond the spectacular projections on buildings or the monumental light art installations, there is a growing trend for light festivals to turn towards the human dimension, mixing in more play and delight for each resident or tourist. By putting performance art in the spotlight, cities and festival organisers are encouraging new ways of experiencing these events. In this session, speakers reflect on how cities experiment beyond what leads to the passive consumption of a festival to create a richer, more socially and emotionally engaging experience. They showcase a variety of examples of parades, from professional parades produced by specialized artists to light events that involve participants in the spectacle itself.

A brief history and context of parades and performance in light festivals

Jessica Ferey, Programme Manager at LUCI Association gives an overview of existing parades and performance art in light festivals from around the world, showcasing the very human aspects of festivals.

Jean-François Zurawik, General Coordinator of the Fête des Lumières, shares the objectives and challenges of parades and performance art installations featured in the festival over the years.

Philip Holmes, Creative Lead at Lightpool Festival (Blackpool, UK) shares successful examples of community engagement through participatory light art initiatives — from light trams to lumi-dogs.

Fabian Seewald of DUNDU emphasises the importance of connecting with the crowds by creating motion and emotion –  and by bringing a little bit of magic into people’s lives.

Panelists of the LLFF session « Light festivals: Humans at the heart » reflected on how cities experiment with parades and performance to create a richer, more engaging experience.

Cities like Lyon have been for decades reimagining their approach to lighting, by mixing lighting engineers and technicians with light artists and lighting designers to draw out the beauty of the city’s night scenes. Inspired by the tradition of theatrical stage lighting – telling a story through light – speakers reflect on how cities and designers today are using the new possibilities of light to create more poetic nightscapes that call on the senses of the viewer. What can we learn from other artistic disciplines to think about our cities’ nocturnal landscapes?

Using famous artists’ quotes, Thierry Marsick, Director of Lyon’s Urban Lighting Department, showcases how the abstract and scenic qualities of Lyon’s nightscapes have been highlighted in recent projects.

Marjolijn van der Meijden from the Centre for Visual Art in Rotterdam shares about the City’s many initiatives combining light art and poetry in the urban space.

Clarisse Tavin from the City of London shares about the City’s new urban lighting strategy as well as the important role of light art in its development and cultural policies, particularly in the Culture Mile London initiative.

Award-winning lighting designer Laurent Fachard, from Les Eclairagistes Associés in Lyon, spoke about the importance of colour in lighting design and in the city nightscape.

Christine Richier from ENSATT Lyon (the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre) draws a parallel between the city and the stage as she describes staging the city through lighting design.

During the Q&A part of the session « Light and art for poetic cities », panelists discussed the complex balance between the opportunities brought by light and the need for darkness in cities.