Mayor of London welcomes Lumiere London: a brand new mild pageant for the town from Artichoke, 14th-17th January 2016

The Mayor of London has welcomed the information that the primary Lumiere mild pageant can be launched within the metropolis this January, happening over 4 nights from 14th-17th January 2016. Lumiere London can be a free-to-attend occasion, produced by Artichoke and supported by the Mayor of London and VisitLondon.com, with founding help from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Coronary heart of London Enterprise Alliance and King’s Cross, and extra help from a raft of companions and sponsors.

Lumiere London would be the first main mild pageant within the metropolis, an occasion to rival worldwide festivals resembling Vivid Sydney, Berlin’s Pageant of Lights and Fête de Lumières in Lyon. It’s going to happen over 4 evenings throughout greater than 20 landmark places in London’s West Finish and King’s Cross.

Artichoke, one of many UK’s main artistic corporations, has produced a biennial Lumiere pageant in Durham since 2009, however that is the primary time the corporate has introduced the idea to London. Pioneering worldwide artists have been commissioned to create works for Lumiere London, giving guests and Londoners the chance to see the town in a brand new mild.

Designed as an antidote to the post-holiday blues, Lumiere London will attraction to vacationers and Londoners alike. This ground-breaking new pageant will reinforce London’s international popularity as a pacesetter in tradition and the humanities and is predicted to attract guests to the capital from the UK and around the globe at a historically quieter time of yr.

The websites for the installations will embrace a few of the metropolis’s most iconic buildings and places. As with all Artichoke tasks, a component of shock might be integral to the expertise and the precise places will stay underneath wraps till nearer to the time.

Lumiere London can be a journey of discovery, weaving a nocturnal artwork path and alluring individuals to discover the town in new methods. The 4 artists revealed at present give a flavour of the programme.

• British artist Julian Opie has been commissioned to make a serious new work particularly for the pageant, supported by Shaftesbury PLC. He’ll be a part of greater than two dozen worldwide artists, performers and designers who’ve been invited to rework London’s iconic streets and structure utilizing the
medium of sunshine.

• US artist Janet Echelman combines historic craft methods with leading edge know-how for her huge aerial internet sculptures impressed by pure phenomena. 1.eight London is a brand new work constructed from hundreds of ft of knotted twine. The sculpture is impressed by the 2011 Japanese Tsunami, which sped up the earth’s vibrations and briefly shortened the size of the day by 1.eight micro-seconds. Floating excessive above a central London assembly level, the fragile simplicity of Echelman’s work belies the architectural precision and sophisticated rigging concerned. Audiences will be capable of change its mild and patterns by way of a specially-created App, powered by Atom Financial institution.

• Paris-based Irish artists Anne Cleary and Dennis Connolly use revolutionary new applied sciences to make large interactive projections and describe their work as ‘observer participation’. Cleary Connolly’s Becoming a member of the Dots is a brand new fee by King’s Cross, developed from the artists’ current collaboration with perceptive psychologists and composed with individuals from the area people.

• BinaryWaves by Belgian art-studio LAb[au] has its roots within the cybernetic artwork of the 1960s. Transposing the electromagnetic waves that carry telecommunications into mild, sound and movement throughout 40 undulating illuminated panels, the work responds to the on a regular basis rhythms of the town.

Helen Marriage, Artichoke Director and curator of Lumiere London stated: “Lumiere London is the primary Artichoke occasion within the capital for six years and marks the opening of our 10th anniversary yr. Free and accessible to all, it brings nice artwork out onto the streets, past the closed areas of the gallery or the live performance corridor”.

“Lumiere was born in Durham and its unimaginable success has been recognised the world over. Lumiere London can be a really totally different occasion with its personal inventive programme, however the rules stay the identical”.

“Lumiere is about altering expectations – buildings you assume you realize change their form and look; public areas turn into locations the place unusual and pleasant issues occur. It’s thrilling as a result of it makes everybody assume in a different way concerning the metropolis and what’s potential”.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, stated: “Lumiere London might be a stunning new pageant for the capital, designed to expel the post-Christmas blues and convey a a lot wanted fillip for companies and the general public throughout darkish and dreary January. It is one other instance of our metropolis’s creativity and its unrivalled cultural riches, which draw guests from around the globe and convey billions to our financial system.”

Artichoke are working with Staff London, the Mayor’s volunteering programme for London, to recruit over 200 volunteers from throughout the capital to assist make the pageant a hit.

Additional particulars about Lumiere London can be found on the devoted web site created by lead media companion London & Companions:  www.visitlondon.com/lumiere.  Extra particulars on the pageant and artists concerned shall be introduced in November. #LumiereLDN.