Belgrade of Light

By: Lola Tapuskovic

Belgrade, Sept. 07 2009, (Serbia Today) - Festival „Belgrade of Light 2009“ will be opened in Belgrade from September 10 till 17th. It is the Second year that this festival is organized.
It is dedicated to culture of light, and the public will have a chance to see potentials of Belgrade and to discover hidden resources of the city. Also, special attention will be given to importance of light, energy and environment. Belgrade of light 2009 continues a discussion about light identity of the City, of keeping cultural, urban and social values of Belgrade. It supports sensitive access of light, and development and promotion of domestic design.
With artistic intervention in public space, educative work rooms, lectures and with programs for children, this festival gives new solutions for city progress”, Milos Mirosavic, from Cultural Front of Belgrade, one of the Festival organizers, told Serbia Today
This year, the Festival will be divided in five sections – Shimmering, Glow from the dark, Lightening design, Recycling lights and Facing the bright future.
SHIMMERING consists of children workshops, which were organized in May in Belgrade schools and kinder gardens. During those workshops, children were educated about the importance of natural light, saving energy and environment. Also, children made lanterns , and they will be promoted on a Parade that will go from the French Cultural Center till Ethnography museum (both institutions are in downtown). At the same time, there will participate in a play called “The sun goddess”, made on a traditional Japanese novel.
GLOW FROM THE DARK is a program which represents installations of light in public space – on front of buildings, forbidden yards, abandoned localities. Installations will be placed in the City, on Geozavod building, and in street Karadjordjeva (it is along Kalemegdan and Sava River). Authors of this program are a group of Artists from Slovenia, Italy, Sweden and Austria.
LIGHTENING DESIGN is a program consisting of lectures called “Poetry in light” and exhibition of Vesa Honkonen from Helsinki, respectable Architect and Light Designer.
„Beside Honkonen, there will be held more lectures. For example, Corrado Terzi from Italy, will give a lecture; famous by making a master plan for lightening of Roma, old town Pompea in Italy, Blue mosque in Istanbul, etc. I must mention lecture and exhibition of Pernilla Jansson from Sweden, and presentation of Alessandra Colombani, president of LUCI (Lighting Urban Community International)“, said Mirosavić.
RECYCLING LIGHTS is Fluorescent tube performance of Mats Lindström and Anna Koch. They will show to public how light impulses can be transformed into tones. In this part of festival, public will have a chance to see a unique collection of works “Say: light” inspired by recycling of light. There will be exhibited works of artists and designers from Sweden, China, Japan, Iran, Slovenia and Serbia.
FACING THE BRIGHT FUTURE is part of a festival which considers new achievements in design of light, especially new technologies and ideas of qualitative progress. It consists of lectures and debates of eminent domestic and foreign Professional Light Designers.
During the Festival, workshops of Architecture students from Serbia and abroad, will be organized. The name of this workshop is “Light up guerilla”. Students will have a chance to make fast interventions of light, in urban spaces. Mentors of this workshop will be a famous world Designer of light Mitje Prelovshec from Australia and Federic Faver from Sweden.
Mirosavic said that this festival will be officially closed on September 17th, with a performance of Parov Stelar, music band from Austria, famous by playing mix of jazz, swing and electronic music.
Festival will be held on few places – Cultural Center Town, Geozavod building, Ethnography museum, University of Architecture, in Cultural Center of France, etc.
This Festival is supported by the Embassy of Sweden in Belgrade, Swedish Institute, and the Secretariat for Culture of City Hall.