From dusk till almost dark in Amsterdam Light Festival

Is darkness really needed?

The tenth edition of Amsterdam Light Festival in 2021 was defined by Covid restrictions, to the brink of madness. At least during my visit in early December. I’m all for vaccinations, masks, distances and all that stuff, but what is the point of restricting an outdoor happening? And even yet, by cutting opening times from the dark end? The festival closed daily at five pm, so there was dark enough for a half an hour to see the artworks properly. As clock turned five, I expected to see at least some civil disobedience the Netherlands is famous for, but no. The works just closed. Where’s the resistance!

Oh, bollocks! 
Moonburn by Stichting Barstow was not too hallucinatory in daylight

On the other hand, not every light artwork needs total darkness. In fact, I often prefer watching outdoor pieces during dusk, while there still is some light left for the environment as well. It reduces the sometimes-strong contrast and I get to see more than just the afterimage burned to my middle-aged retina. 

So, let’s try to be positive here: how the artworks of ALF gained from (some) daylight? As said before, the dusky time slot is a short one, and the light changed all the time. So, no pure impartiality to be expected, just a few examples.

Hello Duskness My New Friend

There were surprisingly many artworks that either didn't suffer or even had some benefit of the daylight leftovers. Neighborhood by Sergey Kim was definitely one of those. The hanging laundry, an everyday item par excellence, became even more everyday-ish as its everyday surroundings were visible and became part of the artwork. Bunch of Tulips by Koros Design looked just as souvenir-like in light as it did in dark, and the surrounding Amsterdam, still visible, supported the theme of tulip craze.

Glowing clean laundry

Indeed, the tulips did change their colour,
running through the whole spectrum

1.26 Amsterdam by Janet Echelman was a real surpriser. I would have though that the huge net would all but disappear without a near absolute darkness, but no. The artwork might have lost an illusion, but gained another kind of vacillating beauty instead. Mr. J.J. van de Veldebrug by Peter Vink, with its linear, architectural approach, glowed in the thickening blue evening light like a drawing in AutoCAD. Most suitable!

Minuten in Blauw by Kira Ressing, Kyra van Baar & Naomi de Bruijn takes its inspiration of the moment of falling darkness, so it's no surprise the moment in question suits it superbly. I had a coffee break just to wait the sun go down a little bit more and during those fifteen minutes the change was essential. As I walked past the artwork some hours later, it was almost too dark for it, I think. The subtlety of the differences in light levels was gone.

Layers in scenery

A 3D light drawing

Amsterdam's windows

Alaa Minawi's My Light is Your Light is a winner in any light. It's bright enough to be (barely) visible even in full daylight, beautifully glowing in dusk, and calmly articulates the outsiderness of the characters, as they continue their eternal walk in the darkness, light shining from other people's homes. 

Loneliness is tangible also in Pas encore mon histoire by Vincent Olinet, but even the hue of solitude changed according to the level of darkness. The first time I passed the artwork it was still quite bright and the floating bed looked forgotten and misplaced. The next time, in dusk, it was romantically dwelling in its own dreamworld, as the light inside it glowed delicately and the setting daylight gently revealed the bed's pastel tones. According to a lady I had a discussion with about light art on the bank – as one does – who walks pass the bed every evening, it becomes most haunting, even hostile, in the darkness. 

I've seen these guys in so many cities,
hope they'll get to their destination one day

The bed in its romantic phase

Then there was the peeing... fishing Darth Vader, that totally gained from full daylight, which made the dark character well recognisable, even seen through a rain-beaten boat window. It's clever from Streetart Frankey to name the piece Darth Fisher, just to make some things clear.

The glowing rod of Darth

Just no

In case we will be meeting regulations again, which I fear is not too whimsical a prediction, I'd like to remind that not all the light-artworks are suitable for diurnal use. Some are, conversely, ultimately not. See for yourself, and if you are the one making decisions about the regulations, think again.

Drawn in Light, just without the light
Ralf Westerhof

Starry Sky, just without the stars
Ivana Jelić & Pavle Petrović

Meisje met het zwavelstokje,
stokje not shining like a beacon
Studio Aldo Brinkhoff - Stichting Nieuwe Helden

Other people writing about Amsterdam Light Festival

• Shirshendu Sengupta: Amsterdam Light Festival 2021-2022

• Lemons and Luggage: An Evening at the Amsterdam Light festival

• Me, about the 2019 edition: Amsterdam Light Festival: White Crispy Lines and a Spoiled Dystopia

Touristy Tip

The place I stayed in Amsterdam is worth a mention. Sweets Hotel provides bridge houses to stay in, all different, scattered around the town. I stayed in the Meeuwenpleinbrug house, in Amsterdam North. Most spectacular! I could have watched the scenery for hours. And did. It was like a grown up version of the huts I made while a kid. A very own house, hovering above the water. Just wonderful! And with some lucky timing, also almost affordable.

****

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

Amsterdam Light Festival: White Crispy Lines and a Spoiled Dystopia

As mentioned previously, there are more than 70 recurring light art festivals in Europe. Seen through my own and social media’s eyes, they are sometimes hard to tell apart. I decided to visit as many as I can – which may fall to anything between 1 and 70 – and see if I can find any differences between festivals.

My first destination is in the Netherlands. Amsterdam Light Festival has reached its 8th edition in 2019, with 20 art works spattered around eastern part of the city centre. The recommended route is about 6 km and a boat is the preferred vehicle. There are many companies providing tours listed in ALF's website and the prices are not too painful.

So, what is special about Amsterdam Light Festival?

1. Water

Amsterdam is defined by its canals, and somehow I'm getting the idea that the Light festival is built on the needs of boat trip providers. That’s both a curse and a blessing. The art works are designed to be seen from the waterside, which leaves the ground strollers in a weaker position, view wise. Then again, gliding among the art works is a unique experience, well worth the quite reasonable ride fee.

Even if a boat trip is one of the most touristic thing ever, (which has never stopped me from taking one), a cruise in December has a taste of adventure. Raindrops will probably keep falling on one's head, and one shall freeze one's arse off, let me tell you, so one should dress accordingly. But it's worth it! In addition to seeing the art works from the designed angle and without too many steps, there's a certain camaraderie among the fellow travellers – partly thanks to the complimentary drink, I believe. Cheers! Kippis! Na zdraví!

Blinded by the fake famousness in Feel Like the Kardashians by Laila Azra
Photo: Janus van den Eijnden / Amsterdam Light Festival

The ultimate example of the water/ground inequality is Feel Like the Kardashians by Laila Azra. Being in the middle of a paparazzi style regiment of flash lights is quite a different an experience than just standing on the pier and watch a boat being paparazzied. Then again, some of art works are well, even better, seen from the shore.

The canals play a big role in a lot of the works. Although it’s not quite clear, why butterflies would gather fluttering on the surface of a cold canal, the drowning cities, cars and lamp posts are quite spot on in the water. Another plus side: since it is difficult and even dangerous to be interactive from a boat, the festival is quite interactivity free. Which, I think, is usually a blessing.

Atlantis by Utskottet is a kind of a graveyard, where famous buildings around the world gather to drown.
Photo: Janus van den Eijnden / Amsterdam Light Festival

2. Human scale

A light art festival without a facade filling WOW piece or two might be an impossibility, but ALF comes close. Actually, it seems just as if the works were chosen based on artistic values and not on magicality, amazingness or just plain huge size or bright colours. The fact that the works, at least seen from a boat, must be fathomable quite quickly and they cannot be too big, also gives a certain continuity to the choice of art works. Unavoidably, there was one wall projection, but even that was quite abstract, no twisting towers or flying bricks around, this time. That’s not to say that all of the pieces were small, but the usual grandiose spectacle was pretty absent. Kudos for that!

The stylishly subtle projection piece The ice is melting at the pøules by Martin Ersted
Photo: Janus van den Eijnden / Amsterdam Light Festival

3. A Proper Theme

It’s nice to have a light art festival with a real and consistent theme for a change. Disruption is a well chosen one, specific enough to give the festival as a whole a structure, but still adaptive enough to include a variety of works of different styles and techniques. Disruption is not really a synonym of political, but it’s close enough: many of the pieces were quite straightforward in their social message. Climate change was, of course, on top of the list. Just as it should be. Some of the works were quite naïve and cutesy, yes, but all of them had at least some kind of a message. Like, I’ve never seen such cute 3D printed glowing wolves in a piece about the Holocaust.

A protecting wolf from the pack in Hiding in the Wolf's Lair 
by Republic of Amsterdam Radio & Nomad Tinker House
Photo: Janus van den Eijnden / Amsterdam Light Festival

Another example of straightforward political light art was Surface Tension by Tom Biddulph and Barbara Ryan, a huge progress from their work in the previous ALF edition. The aesthetics of the  naïve neon eye of the past had matured into crisp, trimmed punctuality, even minimalism, of this year’s suggestive contours of cars drowning in the canal. This piece was just as fine, if not better, seen from the pier, preferably alone. Beautiful and depressive at the same time, a perfect piece for a Finn to enjoy. The one thing I think was not needed, though, was the trick of cute neon dinosaurs turning into cars and lamp posts, as the boat got closer. The illusion didn't quite add anything to the idea and just a tad spoiled the dystopia for me. But apart from that, bravo!

Surface Tension by Tom Biddulph and Barbara Ryan was a definite highlight of the festival
Photo: Janus van den Eijnden / Amsterdam Light Festival

The theme Disruption was also understood in a more tangible way. Krijn de Koning's Nacht tekening redraw the Skinny bridge by breaking up its usual lighting and rearranging the shapes in a most topsy-turvy way. I kept wondering if the actual lighting gear of the bridge was used, but I'm betting on a duplicate. Anyhow, I guess this was the first cubistic light art work I've seen so far. Har Hollands, with his Between the Lines, used same kind of simple line aesthetics, but the approach is pretty different. In his work, the usually unnoticed structure of a crane is made visible, but not shuffled. This, I think, could be described as constructivist light art, par excellence.

Nacht tekening by Krijn de Koning breaks up the perspective
Photo: Janus van den Eijnden / Amsterdam Light Festival

Between the Lines by Har Hollands is also a celebration of the former loading area
Photo: Janus van den Eijnden / Amsterdam Light Festival

All in all

Amsterdam Light Festival has made good use of its surroundings and has a clear curatorial concept, which makes it a very well grounded and focused event. Most of the works are commissioned, so the curse of seen-before doesn't really count in Amsterdam. Of course, festivals are targeted for the large audience, so the most conceptual light art works are quite absent pretty much from every festival, but Amsterdam Light Festival has found a well balanced way between the high art and entertainment. Or, rather, a combination of the two.

AD. Empty Domination by Maria Watjer, Jasmijn Pielkenrood and Wies Brand 
is definitely of the high art section, and also another favourite of mine. 
Photo: Janus van den Eijnden / Amsterdam Light Festival

Other people visiting Amsterdam Light Festival:

• Laughing Squid: Blue Bomb Bursts Into Light Feathers While Butterflies Float Upon a Canal at 2019 Amsterdam Light Festival
• Wimmee.com: Amsterdam Light Festival 2019

• The Itinerant Analyst: Amsterdam Light Festival
• Design Boom: Amsterdam light festival 2019 lights up the city's streets and canals