Durham city transformed into a giant art gallery with a Spotlight on Bishop Auckland

The UK’s light biennial Lumiere returned to Durham, welcoming an estimated 160,000 visitors over four incredible nights

Highlights included Javier Riera’s mind-bending Liquid Geometry, a 270-degree immersive abstract artwork projected onto Durham Cathedral and adjacent buildings. Inside the Cathedral, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Pulse Topology saw 4,500 fluttering light bulbs arranged overhead in an undulating canopy, visualising the pulsating heartbeats of the audiences beneath. Adam Frelin’s sequentially-illuminated arches for Inner Cloister recalled the footsteps of monks of old while Ai Weiwei’s four-metre high Illuminated Bottle Rack decorated with 61 antique and vintage chandeliers glittered in the Cathedral’s atmospheric Chapter House.  

The number of local people taking part in Lumiere increased significantly this year, with 1800 local residents and schoolchildren taking part in 65 workshops and online artwork submissions across five artworks including On Blank Pages (Luzinterruptus), Watchtower (Ron Haselden) and Colour the Castle (Mr.Beam).  

In line with Artichoke’s focus on making this year’s Lumiere the most sustainable yet, two community projects focused on ideas around recycling and solar energy: Diamond Garden by Mick Stephenson and Flowers and Chandeliers, which transformed 1600 plastic bottles into colourful lighted festoons in Prince Bishops and Bishop Auckland, inspired by ideas and designs by Durham Sixth Form College and New College Durham students.  

“Great night at Durham’s fabulous Lumiere festival. The most lovely thing about it was how many local people were there to experience it. Our region is bursting with culture and talent. Let’s shout it from the rooftops.” – X (formerly Twitter) user 

To find out more about Lumiere 2023 and see the highlights from the festival, visit lumiere-festival.com.

Our most robust Learning and Participation to date spanned five creative projects 

On Blank Pages by Luzinterruptus was a huge success. The interactive artwork of thousands of illuminated notebooks invited visitors to share their thoughts about justice. Each night during the event, thousands added to the existing 15,000 pages featuring contributions from people involved in the justice system, from police and prisoners, to court officials and lawyers, refugees, young offenders and victims of crime. Contributions will be scanned and added to the Online Archive.

Flowers and Chandeliers by Durham Sixth Form Centre and New College Durham, was designed in colaboration with 25 students. They took part in a series of workshops that taught them about working to a brief, learning about the technical aspects of working with light and outdoors and how to create for large scale participation. The fabrication of the artwork took place across 25 workshops including drop-in sessions with 6 libraries, totalling 570 participants. The installation repurposed approximately 4,500 recycled bottles.