Programme

 All Lyon Light Festival Forum activities will take place in the Village Lumière at Palais de la Bourse/CCI – Place de la Bourse, Lyon 69002 

Thursday 5 December

LUCI members & guests only, registration required

17:30 Welcome Cocktail

Followed by Visit of the Fête des Lumières

Friday 6 December

Open to the public, registration required

9:30 Coffee and Registration

10:00 Opening of the Lyon Light Festival Forum 

10:30 Session 1 – Light Festivals: Humans at the Heart

Beyond the spectacular projections on buildings or the monumental light art installations, there is a growing trend for light festivals to turn towards the human dimension, mixing in more play and delight for each resident or tourist. By putting performance art in the spotlight, cities and festival organisers are encouraging new ways of experiencing these events. In this session, speakers will reflect on how cities experiment beyond what leads to the passive consumption of a festival to create a richer, more socially and emotionally engaging experience. They will showcase a variety of examples of parades, from professional parades produced by specialized artists to light events that involve participants in the spectacle itself.

Moderated by Jessica Ferey, Programme Manager, LUCI Association

  • Jean-François Zurawik, Director, Fête des Lumières (Lyon, France)
  • Donna Drew Sawyer, Chief Executive Officer, Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, Light City Festival (Baltimore Maryland, USA)
  • Fabian Seewald, Creative Dynamo and CEO, DUNDU (Stuttgart, Germany)
  • Philip Holmes, Creative Lead, Lightpool Festival (Blackpool, UK)
This session will be filmed with the support of Signify Lighting Academy (Pioneers of Light)

12:00 – 13:30  Lunch 

13:30 Session 2: Light and Art for Poetic Cities

Cities like Lyon have been for decades reimagining their approach to lighting, by mixing lighting engineers and technicians with light artists and lighting designers to draw out the beauty of the city’s night scenes. Inspired by the tradition of theatrical stage lighting – telling a story through light – in this session, speakers will reflect on how cities and designers today are using the new possibilities of light to create more poetic nightscapes that call on the senses of the viewer. What can we learn from other artistic disciplines to think about our cities’ nocturnal landscapes?

Moderated by Mark Burton-Page, General Director, LUCI Association

Intro by City of LyonThierry Marsick, Director, Urban Lighting Department, City of Lyon (Lyon, France)

  • Marjolijn van der Meijden, Project Leader, Art & Public Space, Centre for Visual Art, City of Rotterdam (Rotterdam, Netherlands
  • Clarisse Tavin, Group Manager/Major Programmes and Projects, City Public Realm, Department of the Built Environment, City of London Corporation (London, United Kingdom)
  • Laurent Fachard, Lighting Designer, Les éclairagistes associés (Lyon, France)
  • Christine Richier, Co-Director of Lighting Department at ENSATT – Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre (Lyon, France)
This session will be filmed with the support of Signify Lighting Academy (Pioneers of Light)

15:00-15:30 Coffee Break


15:30-17:30 Inspire & Exchange: speed presentations of creative lighting projects from around the world

This session 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 and innovations in the field.

Are you a LUCI member interested in presenting about your festival or creative lighting project? Please fill out this form and send back to luci@luciassociation.org before 20 November 2019.

Check out this year’s pecha kucha presentations here

19:00 Drinks and networking

Saturday 7 December

LUCI members & guests only

10:30 Welcome coffee

11:00 Meeting with the organisers of the Fête des Lumières 

The organising team of the Fête des Lumières of the City of Lyon will share its experience with participants and give them a behind-the-scenes look at the event. This presentation will be followed by an informal open discussion.

Photos credits: © LUCI; © Fête des Lumières, Frontier by Encor Studio, produced by Mirage Festival.
Photo by Muriel Chaulet.