Lyon Creative Lighting Forum
PROGRAMME
Thursday 4 December 2025
Venue: Villa Gillet, Parc de la Cerisaie, 25 rue Chazière, 69004 Lyon
Afternoon: Open to Light Festival Working Group Members only – prior registration required.
15:00 – 15:30 LFWG City Members welcome & registration
15:30 – 16:45 Light Festivals – City to City conversation
- Moderator: Jasmine van der Pol, LUCI Senior Programme Manager
16:45 – 17:15 Coffee break & LFWG LFO Members welcome & registration
17:15 – 18:30 Light Festival Working Group – City & LFOs conversation
Evening: Open to all Forum delegates, LUCI members and guests – prior registration required.
From 19:00 Lyon Creative Lighting Forum Welcome and Networking Reception
Opening words:
- Sonia Zdorovtzoff, Deputy Mayor for International Relations, Cooperation and Solidarity, City of Lyon
- Mark Burton-Page, General Director LUCI
A moment of light magic by Yvan Zim, Magician
LUCI is pleased to welcome city delegates from the Journée Villes Vertes event, part of the Paysalia Exhibition, at the Forum Welcome Reception.
Friday 5 December 2025
Morning Programme
Venue: Auditorium Malraux, 16 rue Professeur Rollet, 69008 Lyon
Open to all Forum delegates, LUCI members and guests – prior registration required.
9:15 – 9:45 Welcome & registrations
9:45 – 10:05 Lyon Creative Lighting Forum 2025 – Opening
- Christophe Pascal, Vice-President, University Jean Moulin Lyon 3
- Sylvain Godinot, Deputy Mayor for Ecological Transition and Heritage, City of Lyon
- Bruno Paternot, Vice-President of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole
10:05 – 10:50 Keynote presentation – Le Chat’s Lighting
- Philippe Geluck, Artist and Cartoonist, Creator of Le Chat
Philippe Geluck has often drawn on the theme of light and darkness. They are not opposites but accomplices, and neither would exist without the other. Light is so central for artists that many have spent their entire lives trying to tame it, soften it, or reproduce it. From Vermeer, the master of Delft, to Soulages, the master of the “Outrenoir”, light radiates from their paintings. Geluck tries, more modestly, to make his contemporaries laugh with Le Chat’s illuminations. Yet when it comes to bright ideas or reflections, we have to admit that Le Chat sheds light on us.
10:50 – 11:15 Coffee break
11:15 – 11:35 Playful Dialogue: Planning for Joy, Equity, and Engagement
- Sebnem Gemalmaz, Associate – ARUP
This session explores how lighting masterplans can embed inclusivity by transforming lighting into permanent urban planning layers for play and social connection. Building on research into the social impact of lighting interventions for vulnerable groups, particularly children, it demonstrates how playful lighting acts as a universal language to foster communication, equity, and a sense of belonging in nighttime environments.
11:35 – 11:55 Light Sketching: a playful approach to participatory design
- Philip Ross, Owner – Studio Philip Ross
Philip Ross presents the evolution of a playful approach to involve residents in designing lighting for ‘their’ public space, called Light Sketching. The presentation shows how it started as an explorative design research technique for Placemaking and how it developed into a fun and accessible participatory design tool that shaped the permanent lighting design for a community park.
11:55 – 12:15 Smile, it’s just light!
- Lionel Bessières and Carolina Scorsone, Lighting designers – Quartiers Lumières and Association des Concepteurs Lumière et Eclairagistes
What happens when urban lighting meets humour and people? Through spontaneous street interviews and real reactions, this talk explores how people from all walks of life perceive light in public spaces — with curiosity, irony, emotion, or laughter. Beyond the technical and aesthetic dimensions of lighting design, “Smile, it’s just light!” invites us to see light as a social and cultural connector, a subtle spark that reveals the diversity of our cities and the mood of those who inhabit them. A journey between seriousness and playfulness, where lampposts, words, and smiles shed new light on the everyday.
12:15 – 12:45 Panel discussion and Q&A
- Moderator: Jasmine van der Pol, LUCI Senior Programme Manager
12:45 – 14:15 Networking lunch
Venue: Salon Suzanne Bastid, IAE Cour Nord, entrance from 6 rue Professeur Rollet, 69008 Lyon
Afternoon Programme
Venue: Auditorium Malraux, 16 rue Professeur Rollet, 69008 Lyon
14:15 – 15:15 Behind the Scenes of the Fête des Lumières
- Julien Pavillard, Director of the Fête des Lumières, City of Lyon
15:15 – 17:15 Creative Lighting Pecha Kuchas
These sessions of “Pecha Kucha”-style speed presentations will be an opportunity for peer-to-peer sharing and exchange in the field of creative lighting. Hear from light festival organisers, artists, and designers about creative lighting projects.
17:15– 17:30 Closing of the Lyon Creative Lighting Forum 2025
17:30– 18:00 Celebratory mulled wine & hot chocolate
From 19:00 Discover the Fête des Lumières
Photo credits
©Juliette Treillet; ©LUCI Association