Lyon Creative Lighting Forum

Working Group meetings and Forum opening

The Forum launched on Thursday 4 December with a dedicated afternoon for the LUCI Light Festival Working Group, bringing together city representatives and festival organisers for in-depth exchanges. A city-to-city conversation and a joint session with light festival organisations set the tone, underlining LUCI’s role as a platform for peer learning on festival governance, identity and value, and audience engagement.

In the evening, a welcome reception gathered international delegates, with opening words from Sonia Zdorovtzoff, Deputy Mayor for International Relations, Cooperation and Solidarity of the City of Lyon, and Mark Burton-Page, General Director of LUCI. A moment of “light magic” by Yvan Zim and informal networking gave a first opportunity for connection to festival organisers, city teams and other delegates present.

Friday’s main Forum day started with opening words from Christophe Pascal, Vice-President of University Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Sylvain Godinot, Deputy Mayor for Ecological Transition and Heritage of the City of Lyon, and Bruno Paternot, Vice-President of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole and of LUCI. Their messages highlighted the importance of collaboration between academia, cities and the creative sector to rethink public lighting through the lens of play and sustainability.

The morning plenary positioned the Forum as a bridge between permanent urban lighting, temporary festival experiences and artistic experimentation. With delegates from cities, universities, light festivals and studios in the same room, the programme invited participants to translate creative ideas into long-term, people-focused lighting strategies.

Morning talks: joy, participation and “just light”

The first morning talk by urban planner and lighting designer Sebnem Gemalmaz focused on “Playful Dialogue – Planning for Joy, Equity, and Engagement”. Drawing from research on vulnerable groups and children, she discussed how lighting masterplans can embed playfulness and social connection as structural layers of urban planning, rather than one-off interventions.

Philip Ross, owner of Studio Philip Ross and future director of the GLOW festival, then presented the evolution of “Light Sketching”, a playful approach to participatory lighting design. He illustrated how this method moved from experimental design research to an accessible tool shaping permanent lighting in a community park, giving residents a tangible role in defining the night-time look and feel of their spaces.

The session continued with “Smile, it’s just light!” by lighting designers Lionel Bessières and Carolina Scorsone from Quartiers Lumières and the Association des Concepteurs Lumière et Éclairagistes. Their presentation explored how light can alleviate tensions, create shared moments of surprise and foster a more relaxed relationship between citizens and their illuminated environment.

A joint Q&A allowed participants to connect themes of equity, participation and play across all three talks. The discussion emphasised that joy and humour in lighting design can go hand in hand with responsibility towards communities and night-time ecologies.

Creative Lighting Pecha Kuchas

The day continued with Pecha Kucha-style presentations, bringing a fast-paced overview of diverse creative lighting practices. These sessions showcased the richness of the international community gathered by LUCI and Lyon, from local collaborations to large-scale international productions.

Rebecca Phillips from Outdoor Places Unusual Spaces (OPUS) in Birmingham shared “Let There Be Play”, highlighting how active programming and playful light can transform neighbourhood spaces and support cultural placemaking. Light artists Benjamin Nesme and Marc Sicard from Luminariste presented how they craft narrative-driven installations for public space, blending craft, digital techniques and architectural context.

Artist and creative director Mathieu Felix introduced both his studio Tigrelab and his new media art practice Tiler Gab, reflecting on immersive environments, colour and the value of slowness in light experiences, while showcasing some of the techniques behind his provocative light projection “Le lundi c’est raviolis !”, created for the Fête des Lumières. László Zsolt Bordos offered a look “behind the scenes” of LUMINA, his new mapping work exhibited on Lyon’s Saint-Jean Cathedral, discussing the technical, artistic and logistical steps in producing such a projection.

Dublin City Council’s Philip Hughes spoke about Dublin Winter Lights, sharing how the festival has grown since 2018 and how each edition, including the 2025 programme, uses light to animate the city in winter. A joint presentation by IntensCity, students from the Lighting Design and Management programme at iaelyon and students from the Brassart school then highlighted “Fenêtre sur cours”, a collaborative video-mapping project that turns the Manufacture des Tabacs façade (main venue of the Forum) into a student-led laboratory for light and media.

More on the Pecha Kucha presentations here.

Thank you !

Thank you to all the participants of the Lyon Creative Lighting Forum 2025, including the brilliant speakers present, as well as the City of Lyon for co-organising this event. LUCI would also like to thank the Villa Gillet and the University Jean Moulin Lyon 3 for providing the venues for this successful celebration of creative lighting!