This year, for the first time, the Petra Light Festival was held in Jordan, where participants brought the The Treasury to life with projection mapping.Continue reading
More than 100 programs, an international light painting competition, and astonishing light installations await visitors to the Zsolnay Light Festival in Pécs in southwest Hungary, which starts on Thursday and runs throughout the weekend for the seventh time.
From Thursday after nightfall, building projections and site-specific light works by Hungarian and foreign light artists will be on display in Pécs.
The works on the city’s streets and squares can be viewed free of charge,
while the attractions in the Kodály Center, the Cella Septichora Visitor Center, the House of Civil Communities, the Yakovali Hassan Mosque, and the Hall of the Baranya County Assembly can be visited with a Way of Light Extra wristband.
The Kodály Center will offer three light experiences: the concert hall will host one of the most captivating monumental attractions of the festival, Gaia.
Another highlight of the festival is a seven-meter diameter installation of the Earth floating above the heads of visitors.
The work, by British artist Luke Jerram, is an internally illuminated installation, each centimeter describing 18 kilometers of the Earth’s surface, and standing 211 meters from the work, the audience would see the planet as it appears from the moon.
From Belgium, the Kodály Center hosts the SMING interactive choir installation, where people can be both conductors and a full choir. Visitors’ voices are recorded on video and audio, from which a software forms a full choir, the person’s face appears on screens and their voice is augmented from speakers into a choir, allowing participants to conduct an orchestra of themselves with a wand.
The winner of the Painting Competition of the Zsolnay Light Festival, EPER, a media studio, founded by Zoltán Varga and Csaba Szabó. Photo via Facebook/Zsolnay Fény Fesztivál
UNICEF Hungary’s photo exhibition will be open free of charge during the festival: visitors will be able to gain insight into human destinies and stories from areas of the world where the consequences of climate change are already present in everyday life.
In Széchenyi Square, those interested can immerse themselves in the ethereal world of coral reefs, home to millions of colorful creatures, while watching the light projection of the Mosque.
The downtown mall will also feature humorous giant fairy-tale light creatures and a playful, thought-provoking artwork inside.
What is more, an enchanted playground awaits children and adults in the park next to the store, where toys come to life after nightfall, offering new stimuli and experiences through light.
The announcement of the festival highlighted that one of the most popular creations, the Way of Light, will come to life again this year:
the carpet of light will be an analogue light painting of the pavement and walls of Janus Pannonius Street.
The light painting on the Theater Square invites the visitor on a journey through the forest. The artists use light and music to evoke the fairy tales and myths of the forests of Mecsek (mountain range in southern Hungary), alongside the animals, plants, and fungi of the forests of Hungary.
Fire jugglers are also a part of the program series. Photo via Facebook/Zsolnay Fény Fesztivál
The LIMEN artwork exhibited in the Hall of the Baranya County Assembly translates the ultrasound emitted by the lamps, invisible to the human ear, into frequencies that can be perceived, so that while we see, we can hear the invisible sound of light.
As a new addition, forty young musicians will perform on a stage made of a 40-ton truck, demonstrating the importance of inclusion and cooperation on Kossuth Square. Students from the Maltese Charity Service Symphonic Program will fill the evening with movie soundtracks, folk songs, and world music.
Via MTI, Featured photo via Facebook/Zsolnay Fényfesztivál / Zsolnay Light Festival