Thursday, November 16, 2017

GLOW 2017: exploring The Source



For the twelfth consecutive year the city of Eindhoven plays host to the GLOW Light Art Festival. A 6 kilometre route takes the visitors strolling from installation to installation in and around the centre of the city. This year the theme is ‘The Source’, a reference to the source of light; ranging from lightning and man making fire to matches, lightbulbs and LED’s. Like last year’s edition, GLOW Next has been integrated in the regular GLOW route with a heavy focus on the NRE site (the former gas works at the head of the Eindhoven shipping canal).



The kinetic  installation "Just because you are a character, doesn't mean you have character" by Ivo Schoofs (left) is now a permanent feature near the station, where the GLOW route starts. The German collective Forum Interart created a light and sound installation in a service street behind shops named #GLOWING. A glowing disk (right) represents the sun at the end of this tri-part installation which aims to provide an emotional reaction by using misters in an eerie blue light as you pass through.



This large awning next to the Philips Light Museum (left) has been adapted for GLOW by Ellen de Vries in collaboration with Lux Lab Realisations. ‘Don’t break the sound barrier’ is an interactive LED grid that react to the sound below; people were encouraged to sing in the streets and watch the lights changing overhead. In the Regent Quarter along the Lichtstraat Har Hollands created an installation ‘De Oorsprong’ which explores the alternative ideas on the source of light: divine creation of thunderbolt versus electromagnetic discharges of energy.



‘Shine like the whole Universe is yours’ is a line of a poem by the Persian poet Rumi. It inspired Ellen de Vries and Lux Lab to create a sound and light installation inside and outside the Fatih Mosque. The light changes with the music and shows the mosque in various guises from introverted to extravagant, thus enforcing the central message of the philosophic Rumi: you can be yourself and show it!



Another project by Har Hollands (left) shows how light can change the perception of shape and place. His ‘Light over Matter’ installation projects changing patterns on a brutalist office tower. Businesses along the route are encouraged to create special window displays. Some are well crafted like this example showing an ‘Endless Love’ (middle). This year the Church of Saint Catherine had a static projection inspired by stained glass art: ‘Windows’ by Daniel Margraf.



After the success of  ‘Step into the Light’ at last year’s GLOW Michel Suk created a follow-up installation on the square in front of city hall: ‘Step into the Light 2.0’. The film music of Les Mépris accompanies changing beams of light (left) on all four sides of the space enveloping the visitor. The children’s art projects have been a part of GLOW for 7 years now.  Over 2200 pupils aged 9-11 from 30 primary schools worked in groups on this installation “Drijflanden’ (floating lands). Cultuurstation asked Sabien Rutten to work with the children to create a scale model of an idealised island. Their creations float on the Dommel river.



The NRE site is the location of this year’s student projects. NRE (Nutsbedrijven Regio Eindhoven) was created as a public energy company in 1989 by merging several municipal energy companies in the region. In 2010 the city of Eindhoven bought the site after NRE was taken over by Endinet and the industrial site -since 1899- had been abandoned. ‘Switch – life transforming light’ is a series of experimental spaces within stacked shipping containers. It is a collaboration of Lux Lab, Rethinking and the Fontys University and St Lucas (vocational college). ‘Lichthouders’ (light holders) is the title of an installation by Jonas Vorwerk: three circular metal frames with changing curtains of lights envelop the visitor. The frames (middle) recall the gas holders that once stood here. Linking the GLOW Next projects metal drums with burning logs remind us of one of the most primitive sources of light made by mankind.



Huize de Laak in the Dommel river (left) is a large mansion that was home to Anton Philips, who with his brother Gerard started the Philips Lightbulb Company. Kari Kola created ‘Story of Light’ an installation of sound and light. LED panels, strip lights and projections are used to create a narrative in and around the villa. 7 student of the Fontys University of Applied Science teamed up to create this GLOW Next project ‘Trees of Life’. Large horse chestnuts are covered in LED strips that respond to touch and sound thus connecting the visitors with the trees and with nature via technology.

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