London Lumiere
The capital has been seen in a new light, thanks to a host of talented lights artists and the creative guidance of Artichoke which brought its Lumiere light festival to London.
Words by Jill Entwistle
Such is the scale of London and so inured are its inhabitants to spectacle, that it was hard to envisage just what kind of an impact the city's first full-blown lighting festival would make. But creative producer Artichoke is not one for half measures -- among its many ambitious projects it brought Royal de Luxe's The Sultan's Elephant to London in 2006 and La Machine's 50m-high mechanical spider to Liverpool for its Capital of Culture celebrations in 2008. The logistics for the £2.5m London Lumiere involved shutting down Oxford Circus, Regent Street and part of Piccadilly to traffic so pedestrians could fully appreciate the drama and diversity of the light installations over the four nights of the festival in January.
Les Voyageurs by French artist Cédric Le Borgne, in St James's. Photo: Matthew Andrews
The 30 light artworks stretched from King's Cross in the north, south to Westminster, and from Mayfair's Grosvenor Square in the west to Trafalgar Square at the easternmost point. While some were arresting but relatively modest in scale -- Benoit deseille's swimming goldfish in a red telephone box and Kim Tae Gon's fibre optic LEd dresses -- others left you with a distinct sense of relief not to be involved with the logistics and planning permission on that one.
Les Voyageurs by French artist Cédric Le Borgne, in St James's. Photo: Matthew Andrews
Janet Echelman's ethereal aerial net sculpture, 1.8 London, was strung between buildings at Oxford Circus. An enormous animated 3D elephant projection (Top'là design's Elephantastic) trumpeted sonorously from the Air Street archway on Regent Street (those who went through were rewarded with the sight of its rear end), while around 100 illuminated stick figures scrambled over the extensive Liberty House facade (Keyframes by Groupe LAPS). Giant illuminated plants bloomed in Leicester Square (Garden of Light by French Collective TILT), while the facades of the BAFTA building (195 Piccadilly by Novak), Central St Martin's (Circus of Light by Ocubo) and the West Front of Westminster Abbey (the Light of the Spirit by Patrice Warrener) were bathed in projected colour.
Litre of Light by Marc Stephenson and students of Central St Martin's, using Alfred Moser's concept of cheap solar light with plastic bottles of water and bleach. Photo: Grainge Photography
Was it a success? Certainly, judging by the numbers -- an estimated million people came to view the festival -- and their patent delight at the installations, it was an indisputable crowd-pleaser. In fact, crowd control contingency measures had to be implemented on more than one occasion.
Porté par le vent's Luminéoles, inflated flowing fish-like creatures in Piccadilly. Photo: Matthew Andrews
Of course, what the long list of sponsors and supporters were looking for was a commercial boost to the post-festive doldrums. Early indications showed that it was also effective on that count. 'The atmosphere in Leicester Square, Piccadilly and St James's was absolutely electric with footfall increasing by 18 per cent year on year on Thursday and Friday from 6pm to 11pm,' said Karen Baines of the Heart of London Business Alliance, which represents more than 500 businesses and 100 property owners in Leicester Square, Piccadilly and St James's. 'There was a significant boost with West End restaurants, cafes and bars reporting double-digit growth in sales.'
Dresses, a colour-changing LED fibre optic sculpture created by Kim Tae Gon, near Granary Square in King's Cross. Photo: Will Eckersley
It is too early to confirm that there will be another event, but you wouldn't have to be much of a gambler to put money on it. The Durham event, the first Lumiere (there is also one in Derry/Londonderry), also organised by Artichoke, began in 2009 by attracting 75,000 visitors. The town's population is just 40,000. The fourth festival last November brought 200,000 people to Durham.
Patrice Warrener's The Light of the Spirit at the West Front of Westminster Abbey, using an intricate chromalithe projection system. Photo: Matthew Andrews
Assessing the long-term impact and success of a lighting festival is actually quite a complex process when all the different factors and measurement criteria are taken into account. Such has been the proliferation of lighting festivals over the past decade that LUCI (Lighting Urban Community International) has produced a Light Festival Evaluation Toolkit, which advises on economic, social, cultural and image, and environmental impacts.
Created by Nova, projections on to the facade of 195 Piccadilly celebrated BAFTA's home with images from its archive, with an aesthetic inspired by the Royal Society of Watercolour Painters, originally housed on the site. Photo: Matthew Andrews
'A festival can bring people together, it can have economic benefits and it can make us realise that darkness is our friend,' Mark Major of Speirs and Major, whose Light and Darkness Strategy for Durham considered the infrastructure for its now highly successful festival, has said. 'Well done, a festival can bring a lot of people into a town centre after dark who might otherwise not go there. The downsides are the legacy of lighting festivals, the money that is spent on them and the energy they consume. Do they just leave a memory or can they contribute something more on a longer-term basis?'
Janet Echelman's 1.8 London at Oxford Circus was prompted by the 2011 Japanese earthquake, whose vibrations momentarily sped up the earth's rotation and shortened that day by 1.8 microseconds. Using NASA data, Echelman translated this into a 3D image, a basis for the sculpture's shape. Photo: Matthew Andrews
Clearly, this multiplicity of considerations is crucial, but what London Lumiere brought home above all was the straightforward and supremely important achievement of making art so accessible and delightful, transforming familiar public spaces into something quite magical. Londoners are still bathed in the metaphorical and literal glow of an uplifting, extraordinary experience.
'It was an unprecedented four nights for London and the turnout was extraordinary,' said Helen Marriage, director of Artichoke, newly awarded an MBE in the 2016 honours list. 'This festival has been about more than seeing the art. It's about people sharing public space and rediscovering the city.
