Lyon Light Festival Forum – Speakers
Keynote – Cities for Children, Light for Children
Francesco Tonucci, Creator of “The City of Children”, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the National Research Council (Italy)
A well-known pedagogist, creator of the international project “The City of Children”, since 1996 Francesco Tonucci is a researcher at the CNR. He believes strongly and tirelessly in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. His educational vision and his proposals to promote children’s participation and the right to play are known in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and the Latin American countries.He received 6 Ph.D. honoris causa from Spanish and Latin American universities and also the Unicef 2019 award. He published more than 30 books and papers, many of which have been translated into several languages. Under the pseudonym FRATO he signs satirical cartoons on the themes of education, the city, children and play that accompany the reflection of teachers and actors involved in the project “The City of Children”.
Session 1: Bridging the gap – Lighting with future generations: youth participation in urban lighting
Elettra Bordonaro, Principal and Creative Director – Light Follows Behaviour, Senior Research Fellow London School of Economics (UK)
Elettra is co-founder and creative director at Light Follows Behaviour, a lighting design studio with the aim to design with people and for people. In addition to being awarded a PhD in 2006 from the University of Architecture in Turin, Elettra also has a background as an architect. She has focused her attention on light and has worked as a lighting designer and consultant on masterplans, exterior and public realm lighting projects in the UK and internationally for over 20 years.
Thierry Marsick, Director, Urban Lighting Department, City of Lyon (Lyon, France)
Thierry MARSICK is an engineer from INSA Lyon. He’s worked for the City of Paris, Grenoble, and today in Lyon. Since 2012, he’s responsible for public lighting department in Lyon, with 74 000 streetlights and more than 350 illuminations. He manages the units in charge of lighting design, maintenance, and logistic. This team is very involved in the Lyon Light Festival and creates every year a project for this event.
Lars Ocklund, Head of City Lighting, Traffic and Public Transport Authority, City of Gothenburg (Sweden)
Lars has extensive experience working with lighting and illumination in the urban landscape, from the early stages as Master Plans to lighting tests and all the way down to “nuts and bolts level”. Always in a fine balance between function and aesthetics with a focus on the people who will use the space.
Session 2: Engaging the youth to create moments of awe through light in public space
Guillaume Aniorté, International Executive Advisor, Quartier des Spectacles Partnership, Montreal (Canada)
Renowned entrepreneur and executive in the creative industry, Guillaume Aniorté has held numerous management and leadership positions in new media and entertainment companies. In 2004, he co-founded Tribal Nova, who quickly became a major player in the field of publishing online channels for kids, virtual words, apps and educational games before being acquired by HMH in 2013. Since 2018, Guillaume is acting as International Executive Advisor for the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership. He also sits on the boards of prestigious organizations such as CBC/Radio-Canada, La Piscine-Rodier (creative companies accelerator) and the Printemps Numérique (Montreal Digital Spring Event) as President. As an industry expert, Guillaume Aniorté participates as a keynote speaker in national and international conferences and he is regularly consulted on key policy and institutional matters regarding new media and digital content.
Elisa Hiligen, Lighting Coordinator, City of Jyväskylä (Finland).
Elisa Hillgen is a Lighting Designer and City of Light Coordinator for the City of Jyväskylä, Finland. She has previously worked in the field of building and interior design and has over 13 years of experience in different fields of lighting. Her job as a lighting coordinator is to handle dark time cityscape by organizing design projects and maintenance for urban lighting in Jyväskylä.
Matteo Scainelli, Project Manager, Cultural Activities Area / European Cultural Networks and Projects, City of Turin (Italy)
Matteo Scainelli works for the Department of Culture of the City of Turin (Italy), in the working group that deals with art in public space. He is involved in the planning of the public programme of Luci d’Artista light festival, which consists of educational activities and workshops that, through the educational departments of four museums in the city, involve thousands of students aged 6 to 14 years.
Creative Lighting Pecha Kucha Presentations
Raphaël Girouard, Landscape architect & lighting designer, Radiance35, Marseille (France)
Raphaël Girouard is a landscape architect from the school of Versailles, France. He worked as a lighting designer since 2005, starting with Yves Adrien (Atelier Coup d’Eclat) in Paris, until 2010. After this experience, Raphaël started to develop more inclusive and participative ways of working specially in South America, where he spent the 10 last years. In 2015, Raphaël created a Colombian lighting design company with Yves Adrien which is dedicated to participative methodology specifically around the nightlife dynamic. After a series of humanitarian projects in Haiti for Lighting Designers Without Borders together with Isabelle Corten as president of the association, they decided to create a new cluster of the company Radiance 35 in Marseille/France. Radiance35 works to develop innovative methodologies for participative lighting design.
BIBI, Artiste, Rieux-Mienervois (France)
BIBI often talk about his light artworks as giant toys. The presentation will broach several points about the relationship between childhood and light through references to several traditional light festivals. What is light for a child? How do children discover their first lights? How do children experience light artworks like BIBI’s and other artists installations? BIBI will also share with us workshops conducted in different institutions and give us a sight on a future participatory project about recycling and lighting.
Maya AlAthel, Artistic Manager at Noor Riyadh Festival, City of Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)
Prior to her work at Noor Riyadh, Maya was a founding member at the General Entertainment Authority, leading the ideation of arts-related projects within the 13 regions of Saudi Arabia. She also supported the establishment of the Visual Arts Council at the General Culture Authority, guided the Visitor Experience Unit at the Ministry of Tourism, and headed Cultural Diplomacy at the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC. She has gained valuable experience working within world-renowned Arts institutions such as Christie’s, Saatchi Gallery, and New York University. Maya holds a BS in Business Management from Suffolk University in Boston, and an MA in Innovation Management with a focus on Museum Studies and Curation from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design in London.
Yasmeen Sabri, Head of Production and Operations for Noor Riyadh Festival, City of Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)
Yasmeen Sabri is a Jordanian artist and experienced designer based in Riyadh. Yasmeen is passionate about creating thought provoking, research driven works and events, producing impactful creative activations that further enhances the cultural development of the region. Sabri has a BA in Fine Arts from University of Arts London, and a Masters in Experience design from Royal College of Arts, London.
Tom Weerts, Production Manager, Foreign Affairs and Development, Glow Eindhoven (Netherlands)
Tom Weerts is first of all a connector next to manager, teacher and inspirer for everything that breathes culture. Already involved with Glow from the first year (17 years) and for many years responsible for the festival, development and international relations.This is based on his long experience as an organizer of cultural activities, teacher, musician, theater maker and knowledge in the field of technology, art and management.
Kaat Heirbrant, Coordinator of Ghent Light Festival, Ghent (Brussels)
After a degree in arts and communication, Kaat Heirbrant started out in European policy and for an arts institute. In 2007, she began to work at the department of city promotion for the city of Ghent, focussing on cultural events, tourism and city marketing. In 2011 she organised the first light festival in Ghent. A festival that was conceived to emphasize the architectural lighting masterplan and build bridges between artists, cultural and educational institutions and public space. Ghent Light festival has been increasing in visitornumbers ever since and now hosts 40 artists every edition and over 800.000 visitors in a city of 250.000 inhabitants. Meanwhile Kaat also has a background in cultural policy in Ghent, specificly in cultural events and art in public space. Today she works mainly as event coördinator and light festival organiser.
Julien Pavillard, Director of the Fête des Lumières, City of Lyon (France)
Julien has been the Director for Events and Animation as well as the general coordinator of the Lyon Fête des Lumières since January 2020. He previously created and managed the Congo Bleu agency which has carried out numerous lighting projects and invented several light festivals (in Switzerland, Russia, Asia, North America and the Middle East). With his team, and alongside Annie Mesplède and Jean-François Zurawik, he also relaunched the Fête des Lumières between 2005 and 2009 to expand the festival into what it has now become.
Romain Tamayo, Project Officer for the Fête des Lumières, City of Lyon (France)
Romain has always been passionate about art and has been working in and around the cultural sector for more than a decade now. He started out in music, founding as a student an organization to promote electronic music and artists in France and Europe. After living in Berlin for a year, his interest for light art grew as he started to work for the Fête des Lumières in Lyon. In the past, Romain has overseen the development of the festival in the city’s districts. Since 2019, Romain was promoted to project officer, in charge of the main creative projects, sponsorship and procurement.
© Vivien Gaumand ; © Javier Barbancho.