Candles in a Plastic Garden and Easy Exits in Lyon

Fête des Lumières in Lyon is the grand old lady of the light art festivals. It has a pedigree ever since the 17th century and is still one of the most revered light art festivals in Europe. It’s kind of a Maggie Smith of light art festivals.

To put its history simply: the festival evolved from previous festivities in 1850’s, when a celebration for a St. Mary’s statue had been postponed several times for everyone’s frustration, lastly because of a storm. But behold, the skies unexpectedly cleared and the people of Lyon spontaneously lighted up the candles and celebrated on the streets. It was such a blast that it became a tradition. The nowadays festival is still held during the days surrounding December 8th, the original party-hard day. These candles, lumignons des coeur, are still an important part of the festival, even though there are fewer of them on windowsills. In modern times the candles light a park, for charity. With blue lights and plastic decoration to match.

History meets led-lights

The assortment of light art works on display in the festival of 2021 is, according to the program and my observation, eclectic – as it usually is. No specific theme is decided, there's something for everyone and the range of the artworks goes from spectacular projections to small scale demos. 

I found favourites throughout the spectrum. 

Mandatory cathedral projections rarely check my favourites box, but Iris by AV Extended had its moments. I do appreciate the idea of turning the wall around and studying the light that falls inside the church from its windows. Even the flaming iris part of the show was tolerable.

Even though there was a lot of material included in the Ricochets-projection by Jérôme Donna, the style of it was stylishly simple. There was mostly black and white imagery with clear motives, of which I just loved the cubistic moment of plain squares. One sees anything this minimalistic in large projections so rarely that I felt like I was witnessing history in the making. The Lyon Zoo is somewhere around the trees where the piece was projected, that’s probably why there were apes and other animalia as well. I preferred the cubes.

More imaginary fauna was available in Visions by Luminariste, also very black and white and stylish. Bringing forward some Finnish light art: Olivia Pohjola had a similar touch in her piece Edeltämenneille in the FLASH3 light art biennale Light and Death earlier in 2021. The Finnish approach was a tad more pessimistic, concentrating on (nearly) extinct species, but both of the artworks raised some valuable what if -questions, I'm sure.

Light is pouring from the windows

A cubistic moment in the history of light art

An imagined biota

A foregone biota of Olivia Pohjola's Edeltämenneet
from FLASH3 light art biennale in Helsinki, Finland.
Photo: Hannu Iso-Oja / Finnish Light Art Society FLASH

In the student section there was the wonderful Epure (Godfathered by Daniel Rackowice and Massimo Uberti, I'm sure), a study of space by Aurelien Colliou, Ayman El Biyadi and Manon Girard, students in Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Lyon. The glowing box was a simple, ethereal object amidst the very material buildings. A perfect combination with the environment, with a perfectly absurd location. I especially enjoyed the poster below the artwork, with a man staring starkly towards the box. I hope it was intentional.

Then there was an old acquittance from Ghent, Museum of the Moon by Luke Jerram. As in Gent, it was successfully placed in a totally wrong environment, that enhanced the contrast of the highly naturalistic moon and its unnatural placement. Now, there’s an artwork that radically changes in relation to its venue, without a proper one being just a novelty air balloon.

As I approached the Aftereal by Yasuhiro Chida, I wondered what that eerie blue mist was, vibrating in a parklet. Turns out, it’s UV-coloured threads. I love how the piece had no magic whatsoever when watched up close, but how it didn’t lose any of its subtle beauty because of that. Even though a darker and more peaceful location would have supported the artwork better, I think. Obviously, there are not too many such places in the heart of a big city.

An extra room from another dimension

Blue and Moon

Mist of ribbons

I run into the first waiting lines at the entrance of Tête d’Or park. I had a chance to call a friend and bypass the cue, but since I am a staunch democrat and the cue looked short, I didn’t grasp that privileged chance. I immediately regretted, as I noticed the cue just looked short and there was an extra marathon in the end of it. But the park was worth it. It was a perfect venue for the electric dragon Hydra of La créature du lac by Nicolas Paolozzi, which I have to say, looks way better in real life than in my photos. The movement of light is an integral part of the piece, and it was done with restraint and skill. The artwork was a diptych of a kind, combining Hydra and a flower themed piece by the same artist. In this case, I think the artworks would have been stronger and more equivocal on their own. Resist the horror vacui!

This is probably a fifth of the whole Hydra

A special high five from me goes to signs. Marking the route people should follow is a constant blight in big light art festivals. In Lyon it was easy to just go where everyone else is going, and the exits where especially distinguishable. Artworks of their own.

Other people writing about Fête des Lumiéres

Lucky Sophie: Notre Fête des Lumières 2021 à Lyon (in French)
Planes Trains & Shanes: Fête des Lumières in Lyon

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Spectacular thanks to Niilo Helander Foundation, that has made possible my Grand Tour of Light Art, including the visit to Fête des Lumiéres.