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Les Luminéoles
Les Luminéoles, Porté Par Le Vent. Lumiere London 2016, produced by Artichoke, supported by Mayor of London. Photograph by Matthew Andrews

A nocturnal delight

Supported by the Mayor of London.

Lumiere London 2016 - Highlights

Taking the West End and King’s Cross by storm, Lumiere London invited audiences to see the city in a new light as visitors were treated to 30 light installations across the city.

Iconic streets and buildings became a pedestrian playground

At Oxford Circus, closed to traffic for the event, people lay on their backs gazing up at 1.8 London, Janet Echelman’s beautifully illuminated aerial sculpture that was strung between buildings.

Along a pedestrianised Regent Street, crowds gathered to see Groupe LAPS/Thomas Veyssiére’s Keyframes, LED stick men, moving in sequence in celebration of retro video games and Elephantastic!, a 3D, larger-than-life projected elephant stomping through the Air Street arch. At Westminster Abbey, audiences stood mesmerised by The Light of the Spirit, a digital painting by French artist Patrice Warrener, who had bathed the Abbey’s West Gate in an electric riot of colour.

In Carnaby, on Broadwick Street, visitors gathered around Julian Opie’s animated LED monolith, Shaida Walking. The piece was commissioned as a permanent installation for the area.

Aquarium, Benedetto Bufalino & Benoit Deseille’s iconic red telephone box filled with exotic fish at Grosvenor Square, was a firm festival favourite, drawing audiences to the leafy garden square in Mayfair. The square was also home to Elaine Buckholtz’s abstract digital painting, Spinning Night in Living Colour.

Hundreds of Londoners of all ages played their part in the festival: from donating a recycled plastic bottle to the glowing Plastic Islands installation by Luzinterruptus in the Trafalgar Square fountains, to appearing on film in the spectacular Circus of Light projected onto the Granary Building at King’s Cross. 500 children also took part in workshops at schools in the area to help make Joining the Dots and Litre of Light, both also at King’s Cross.

Audience icon

1.37 million

Audience members

Volunteer icon

278

Team London Volunteers

20,000

Recycled bottles for Plastic Islands artwork

Award winner icon

Event Magazine Awards

Winner, Best Debut Event & Best Outdoor Event

Lanyard icon

400

Security and stewarding staff

New commission icon

69

Number of fish in the aquarium phone box


The city itself became the story. Everything needed a second look.

~ Susannah Clapp, The Guardian, January 2016 ~

Artists

Artists

Sarah Blood

Dissect | View Bio

Sarah Blood

Sanctuary | View Bio

Elaine Buckholtz

Spinning Night in Living Colour | View Bio

Cédric Le Borgne

Les Voyageurs (The Travellers) | View Bio

Centre Point Lights

Centre Point Lights | View Bio

Cleary Connolly

Joining the Dots | View Bio

Janet Echelman / Studio Echelman

1.8 London | View Bio

Floating Pictures

Light Graffiti | View Bio

Top’là Design / Catherine Garret

Elephantastic | View Bio

FIELD.io

Spectra-3 Lux | View Bio

Groupe LAPS / Thomas Veyssiére

Keyframes | View Bio

Ron Haselden

Brothers and Sisters | View Bio

Ron Haselden

Diver | View Bio

Lab[au]

binaryWaves | View Bio

Tae gon KIM

Dresses | View Bio

Luzinterruptus

Plastic Islands | View Bio

Deepa Mann-Kler

Neon Dogs | View Bio

NOVAK

195 Piccadilly | View Bio

Ocubo

Circus of Light | View Bio

Julian Opie

Shaida Walking | View Bio

Porté par le vent

Les Luminéoles | View Bio

Nathaniel Rackowe

Platonic Spin | View Bio

Jacques Rival

IFO (Identified Flying Object) | View Bio

Beth J Ross

I Haven’t Changed my Mind in a Thousand Years | View Bio

Mick Stephenson, Central St Martins students, MyShelter Foundation

Litre of Light | View Bio

Bernd Spiecker for LBO LichtBankObjekte

Lightbench | View Bio

TILT

Garden of Light | View Bio

Patrice Warrener

The Light of the Spirit | View Bio

Opening night of Lumiere London 2016

Opening night film for Lumiere London, 14 – 17 January 2016.

1.8 London, Janet Echelman
1.8 London, Janet Echelman / Studio Echelman (US). Lumiere London 2016, produced by Artichoke, supported by Mayor of London. Photograph © Matthew Andrews 2016 1.8 London, Janet Echelman / Studio Echelman, Lumiere London, 2016. Produced by Artichoke. Photo by Matthew Andrews

What was it that made Londoners leave their homes and tourists their hotels during the city’s coldest four nights in years and, as many spontaneously did, lie face up on the freezing tarmac of Oxford Circus? Light is one answer. Art, another. For those four days the art scene in London was transformed.

~ John Nathan, The Times ~

Lumiere London - Time Lapse

A whistle-stop tour through the capitals biggest ever light festival, 14 – 17 January 2016.

Lumiere Durham 2017

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