The Black Paint of Light Art

Svetlobna gverila festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia is a gloriously spectacle-free light art festival. No additional wow effects added, no retinas harmed. I visited the 2022 edition and in my one year celebration series write about it now.

Marika Gönc's Night Fish was one of the lovely studies of shadows of the festival

Small scale cosiness

The scale of the festival is best described as cosy. The artworks were quite small, compared to average light art festival. Few of them were high-tech, artisanship was more of a thing here. The artworks intertwined in the cityscape, some of them were even in a bit of a camouflage, which gave me an opportunity to do some urban sherlocking. Or maybe I’m just bad at reading maps. 

Student works formed an exceptionally large part of the artworks, which I do appreciate. Generally, students are not marinated in the conventions of light art, which leads both to inventing the wheel again but more often to new angles and out of the box thinking. Which is easy, if you don’t know the box even exists. The student artworks, from a wide variety of academies and even high schools, were straightforward and confident in their exploration of light. Well done!

T – 60 by students of Academy of Fine Arts and Design
played with slightly moving shadows and scale

The futuristic and mesmerising artwork in Academy of Fine Arts and Design's In Situ exhibition,
by Lara Žagar, was one of the most promising student artworks in my list.

Lack of Light Is a Fine Material

Shadows are in no way opposite of light as a material, but rather the black paint of light art. Already the Kinetic Art movement, a progenitor of light art, made a good use of shadows as well as reflections. Exhibit A: László Moholy-Nagy's Light Prop for an Electric Stage (Light-Space Modulator) from around 1930, which sometimes is referred as the first light art piece (debatable).

In many of the artworks, but especially in gallery ones, shadows were the rave material of this year’s festival. They were present as characters, illusions and visual elements, just to begin with. 

My new favourite of shadow utilizers is Erik Mátrai. His two pieces in the festival, The Flag and Turul both were based on shadows giving another level of interpretation to what we see. In Turul, a surveillance camera’s shadows form wings and make it seem like a thing from a Gunnerkrigg Court strip, which is not mutually exclusive with the actual meaning of the word Turul, a mythical bird and a symbol of Hungarians. 

In The Flag, we see a shadow of a flying flag, without the actual flag. Even though I was impressed by the simple expressiveness of the piece, I have to admit the idea is not too original: at least Simo Ripatti has ended up to a similar outcome in his Juhla (Occasion). Then again, great minds think alike.

Turul spreads its ominous wings

The Flag flies ominously

Neighborhood/(neigh)gorge(hood) by students of University of Ljubljana  was exceptionally delightful, and not only because it could be observed from a really nice terrace of Art hotel (which might be my touristy tip, even if I didn't stay there), with a glass of sparkly. Quite fitting, indeed, since the artwork was about common urban spaces. There, the shadow of the art piece became even more important than the object itself. 

Shadows Crawl Around Slovenia by Nikola Slavevski shows different kinds of shadow characters around Ljubljana. It was a kind of art collectible: single shadow might be nice, but spotting the lot of them is the real joy. I'm sure this was the favourite of Visit Ljublana staff, for making visitors ogle the city for reals. 

Shadows in the neighbourhood

A shadow crawling around Ljubljana

Shadows moving in City – Sketch by Andrej Štular & Janez Grošelj

This is Not a Commercial Festival

The most striking specialty for me was the absence of spectacle. None of the artworks seemed to be planned purely oohs and aahs in mind. They were whatever the artist wanted them to be, with no apparent connection to visitor count. That, my friend, is pretty rare and daring, and the integrity of the festival deserves another toast of sparkling!

This Is Not a Commercial by Veli & Amos was probably the closest to a spectacle there was.
And even that failed in being annoyingly showy.

Lots of Light Art and One Difficult Question

Nobel Week Lights is a light art festival scattered around Stockholm with a curatorial base in connection to Nobel prizes. It’s organised around December 8th and I visited it last year. The area covered by light art is quite large and I recommend more than one night for visiting the festival. Take your time for rest of the city and its galleries as well, for Stockholm is one nice city!

I t was also nice seeing students' artworks!
No blunders blunders by Constance Michnik Frederiksson

A Difficult Question to Start with 

I had a most interesting discussion about light art festivals and their diversity (or lack thereof) with one of the Nobel Week Lights curators, Lara Szabo Greisman from Troika. She asked me if I could name one artwork in the festival, that would best grasp the idea of Nobel Week Lights. In that hasty moment, I couldn’t, and the conversation galloped on, but the question kept puzzling me. 

Later on I realised there wasn’t one artwork that would be the icon of the whole festival for me. Rather, it would be the theme. Relating every artwork to Nobel prize winners gave me a specific, otherwise not-though-of way to view them. It connected the miscellaneous group of artworks into a solid whole. The theme was strict enough to give the festival a certain spirit but solute enough to choose variant artworks. That, I think, is genius!

A Non-Answer to the Original Question

Choosing one artwork representing the whole festival proved to be impossible but choosing one closest to the Nobel prize history would have been an easy task. 

Heroes by Smash Studios is basically a documentary about Raoul Wallenberg and Dag Hammarskjöld, in a projection mapping form. Stylishly accomplished, heartfelt and informative, on emotional and conscious level. A good competitor was Kroft & Smids’s Nobel Light Walk, a route of quotes of Nobel Prize winners, projected on unexpected surfaces. This, I think, would be a good starting point for a whole new light-literature festival! And of course, there is the large-scale projection mapping Conscience by Ateliers Bk, that really rubs the Nobel medal in our faces, with some sparkles, fluttery fabric, and a Phoenix bird, as is trendy in mapping these days.

"We remember" – I sure hope everyone does

Text and the City

Exploding / sparkling Nobel prize

Light Art Moving People

It’s nice to hear people scream, even if it’s just for joy. The seesaw called Wave-Field, by CS Design, Lateral Office and Mitchell Akiyama appealed to kids and adults alike, inviting them to the very simple and joyful interaction of seesawing. A tad more challenging interaction was found in Alexander Wolfe’s Kinesthesia, where approaching of lamp posts was demanded. Screams of joy still ensued, as people succeeded in creating a composition and a light show by running around the posts. 

Ack, ack, spegelns retrospection by Eva Beierheimer was aptly named, reflecting the spectator in front of it with a slightest delay, modifying the reflection in a very delightful 60’s OP-art way. Tove Alderin’s Orchestrated Entities_Chorus was advertised as interactive, but even after downloading the app and bellowing at my phone I didn’t quite find out how it should have manifested. It didn’t matter, however, since the artwork was beautiful on its own, without me or anyone else (but especially me) adding my voice to it.

Karl XII tells people to move it, move it

An orchestra of lamp-posts

Eva Beierheimer lures people to move it, move it

This artwork doesn't include me screaming

More or Less Minimalistic Artworks

I was quite impressed with the brave simplicity of Ljuset by Johan Thurfjell. The single projected candle became a statement bigger than its size or luxes. Also simple, but not quite small, Luke Jerram’s Gaia recycled the idea of his previous Museum of the Moon. There, a celestial body, in this case Earth, is placed somewhere where it doesn’t really belong, in this case to the Royal Palace. 

Julia Dantonnet’s Horizon is probably my favourite of this year’s edition. Based on an old trick of lighting design, it made light birds fly on the walls of City Museum. Being a close friend with minimalism, I’d be happy just with the birds, but I guess light art festival context demands a showy element, even if it’s just a colour changing light wash.

Not a piece by Elton John

Every man becomes an Atlas here

Flipping birds

Future Forecast

As a light art educator, I was super interested in the student section. Within and Against, a collection of student works, was compiled from site specific artworks around Serafimerstranden, realised by art, lighting design and curating students of Konstfack, Kungliga tekniska högskolan and Stockholm University, respectively. Few of the artworks actually used added light, the overall approach was quite conceptual and contemplating, making use of existing lights. I couldn’t find all the artworks, but based on what I did find, I expect to see interesting use of light in the Stockholm visual arts scene in forthcoming years.

The Drop by Karin Askling

My trip to Nobel Week Lights has been supported by Frame Finland, and I thank them with all my heart.

Dada Pipes and Duct Tape

I visited Water Light Festival in Bressanone one year ago. To commemorate that happy visit and to celebrate the following edition starting today, I'll share my experiences with a minor delay. 

The festival's name pretty much defines its content. The artworks approached water from varied angles: they were about water, imitating water, commenting water, using water as material – or even immersed in water. The connection was not always obvious, but it was there, at least after some brain gymnastics. The artworks were well chosen, pleasing the thirst for beauty but not afraid of a little more challenging aesthetics. The placing of artworks was done carefully, with an eye for environment and its connection to the piece, not just distributed around the city. 

I would congratulate the curator, if I knew their name, but that seemed to be confidential information, at least judging by the festival prints. A major frown from a colleague.

Dada Pipes and other Projections

The projection pieces of the festival were diverse and gloriously un-stereotypical. Even the compulsory church projection was, even if super beautiful, designed with a clear idea and taste. It was a pleasure for once to follow an actual dramaturgy in a projection, instead of a parade of the latest video effects in fast forward. The artist Spectaculaires had a rare art historical approach to the cathedral of Bressanone in their Colours of the Cathedral. The façade of the building was re-colored with hues that have actually existed in history, according to old sketches of the church. Obviously, there was heavy embellishment involved, but the result was quite enjoyable, without one single flying brick or twisting tower. 

Some projection time traveling

Refik Anadol’s Bosphorus was an example of very trendy data based / generated / inspired art, that is especially ubiquitous in video art. Here, the turbulent, cubic but water-like mass is whirling “inspired by the high frequency data of Marmara Sea”. Does it make any difference to my experience that I know this? As usual, no. It’s still a pretty neat artwork, though, and in a very well-chosen place.

Blocks of water

As mentioned in a previous post, Detlef Hartung and Georg Trenz are old pals with Panta Rhei metaphor of everything flowing. In this case, words (believed to be said) by Heraclitus are the flowing thing and the canvas is St. Erhard’s church, a cottage-like building in a small square. Flowing also happens in the readability of the words, fluctuating between clarity and typographic mass. Maybe it is the graphic designer in me, but I found the composition by letters of the artwork enchanting.

Can you read the house?

Sometimes projection mappings don’t make any sense to me. You know, unexplained whales in jungle, exploding diamonds, flowers growing from eyes and sparkles everywhere kind of stuff. But after seeing Peter Aerschmann’s H2O I realized that maybe they are not meant to make any sense in the first place. Maybe t’s all about Dada! H2O was absolutely hilarious, introducing birds in swings hanging in piping systems, golden eggs appearing, faucets made of tree rooting, followed by even weirder stuff even Marcel Duchamp would be jealous of! You really couldn’t tell, what will come out next. How vividly lovely!

A hen with a faucet as a head. Obviously.

Some Proven and Possible Classics

Water Light Festival combined well known, subtle classics of light art, dwelling peacefully by the monastery, with younger generation’s artworks around the city, just waiting to be canonized.

Going to the monastery hoods, one got a chance to see some established light artists, like James Turrell, Brigitte Kowanz and Keith Sonnier, and taste some established wines of the area. James Turrell is presented by a painting-like study of colour, no surprises there. Beautiful, of course. Also, the instalment made me so curious that I took my chance to do some spying behind the scenes while I was alone in the space. No surprises there, either, but it made me chuckle to see that even James Turrell needs duct tape.

Changing colours à la Turrell are my favourite kind of changing colours

I’ve long waited to see a Massimo Uberti’s works live, and now I got my chance. Oh, what a white crispy line galore! In Uberti’s Battistero d’Oro a baptistery appears above an octagonal fountain, marked by its glowing light tube window frames. The artwork balances gracefully between materiality and imagination, the latter building the rest of the building our eyes can’t see. A strike of geniality in simplicity!

A see-through baptistery by Mr. Uberti

The thin blue-ish lines of Senses and Spaces, forming pentagram-like forms on the Franzensfeste Fortezza’s walls, are a trademark of Vincenzo Marsiglia. This was an example of especially insightful setting, the crispy stars nonchalantly embracing the environment as a whole, not just the houses they was attached to. I know the shape is not a pentagram, but it looks a little like one and does it really make any difference to postmodern demons? In the dark I couldn’t tell if the other few persons looming around were underworld visitors or just fellow tourists. Until they started taking selfies. Phew.

There were no demons that I know of

As an example of a more demanding piece of art, Arnold Mario Dall’o’s rugged The Art of Love was everything but nice and fancy. I would even call it violent. Two strong water jets rocked recklessly in a big plexi tube, and I just couldn’t decide if I should tell them to stop fighting or get a room. I’d expect to see this kind of visually and thematically ambiguous artwork in Venice Biennale, not in a light art festival, which makes me respect the (unknown) curators even more.

Lots of water, lots of light

Mysterious outer skirts

After a short hike from the center to a suburban park I notice a man in a boat with a Moon. Sure, why not. A travelling artwork had landed in a pool in the outskirts of Bressanone, bringing Leonid Tishkov’s Private Moon to yet another destination. The previous stops include places like, you know, The Arctic. This artwork is enchanting on more than one level. Obviously, Moon as a person is a thingy of fairy tales to begin with, but a live person sitting in a boat with it, instead of a dummy, is just charmingly mythical. The audience was sparse at the time of my visit, so the piece felt especially intimate.

A man and a Moon

The enigmatic ambience continued in the blue maze of La Maison Flux by Sophie Guyot, filled with whispers and captivated branches. From the images I reckoned this would be another handicraft Hell, but the actual experience was quite the opposite. Haunting and beautiful. A very perfect finish to my tour in Water Light Festival. 

It was no askartelu-paskartelu, this one

Touristy tip

The Hotel Grauer Bäer in Via Mercato Vecchio 27 is a Twin Peaks experience, just without the creepy stuff. Peculiar, in a very good way. The décor is a time trip to 80’s hunting lodge, what with all the skulls on the wall, and of course the huge teddy bears used for advertising, spending their nights in the hallways. Breakfast mainly includes products from a family farm and a cup of damn good coffee. And a piece of cake. Every morning a huge piece of different kind of damn good cake. Prices are reasonable, rooms comfortable and location is great. Not to mention the wonderful staff.