From the 16th to the 19th of February, Bright Festival will fill Brussels with light. The festival’s program consists of three routes through several Brussels quarters and municipalities, each of which is enhanced by more than twenty original artistic installations. The different routes will be adorned with immersive and poetic monumental works by national and international artists. Several museums are designing a new off-program during the four evenings.
In addition to the presence of new original installations, this year’s edition also includes a route in Schaerbeek. Visitors of all ages will be spoilt for choice between illuminated works, night-time museum visits and guided tours. A discovery “by night” of the streets of the capital that promises a true multi-sensory experience. Here is an overview of the works that will be presented this year.
During this edition, particular attention will be paid to Art Nouveau. In December of last year, the Brussels Region announced that 2023 will be the Art Nouveau Year as an important anniversary is going to be celebrated this year in the Capital of Europe. The Tassel House was inaugurated in Brussels in 1893, an iconic building designed by Victor Horta; it was his first ‘Art Nouveau’ construction. On the occasion of this 130th anniversary, the Brussels Region will organize several events aimed at showcasing Art Nouveau in all its splendor.
The Tassel House represents the very first summation of the elements of Art Nouveau: color, ironwork, mosaics, stained glass and the omnipresence of light. For the architects, the house became a complete work of art and Art Nouveau was found throughout: architecture, furniture, carpets, decorative objects, jewelry, posters, etc. Beyond its architectural and decorative aspects, Art Nouveau was, above all, ideological. The artists, architects and craftsmen of the time, frightened by an intensifying industrialization, advocated a return to nature, to the quality and durability of manufactured objects, but also to beauty as an essential part of life.
1. The European Quarter
ABYSS, Cinquantenaire Arcades: ABYSS is a creature inspired by the ocean depths, between the legendary universe of the Nautilus and the mysterious aquatic fauna of the deep sea. Intriguing and fascinating, ABYSS plunges the spectator into the abyss, for an exploratory journey through the deep. The installation, made up of a set of light sources, aims to reproduce the singular aesthetics of the bioluminescence of certain aquatic beings.
Marbles, Gertjan Adema, Leopold Park: Gretjan Adema has been working as a light artist since 2018. His works have been presented at many festivals. For his kinetic installation he uses toys to create a meditative and playful atmosphere. His Marbles installation plays with repetition in geometry and with the movement of an orbiting marble. It is structured, supported by the soundscape and the light pattern drawn by the trajectory of the marble.
The Great Indecision Council, Romain Tardy, Place Jean Reyplein: Romain Tardy proposes an involuntary self-portrait of modern-day Belgian society through the most frequently entered words in Google Search and Google News. He transforms them in real time, in the public sphere, into visual and sound signals, such as visible and audible pulsations of the world, inside and outside a circle. This mesmerising, large-scale installation envelops the audience in a circle of light, sound, words and mystical computer-generated chants.
Walk Under Flowers, Illuminist, Cinquantenaire Park: German artist Peter Grotz and his team have been delighting audiences at home and abroad for over 20 years with their objects made of air and light. By constantly creating new forms and combining them, each installation becomes a unique work. Walk Under Flowers creates a new perspective, the large becomes small and vice versa. The flowers become forests and the audience is taken away from their everyday life and reality.
Utopia, THÉORIZ studio, Art & History Museum: Utopia is a monumental immersive and interactive experience. The installation at the Art & History Museum is the work of French art and technology studio THÉORIZ. It invites you to a virtual world that is at once playful and contemplative. In this installation, you enter a digital world with brilliant visuals that refer to Art Nouveau patterns. The aim is to make you think interactively about the role of technology in our future society.
2. The Royal Quarter
MAPP, AlexP, Place Sainte-Gudule/Sint-Goedeleplein: MAPP stands for Mapping At Private Properties. It’s a mobile, interactive video mapping system mounted on a child’s pram, so it can be aimed at almost any object or wall. Participants “step into the light” and are scanned by MAPP. Within seconds of walking away, their silhouettes are integrated into the artwork. The MAPP scans appear among the colourful patterns of the projection.
Patterns in Nature, AV Extended/TETRO, Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudula: The mapping of the cathedral translates into five chapters, the intersections of the different motifs of nature, the trajectories and the paths that nature offers. It synthesises biology, natural history, mathematics and science in the service of art.
Dynamic Light Stripes, OLAB, Rue Baron Hortastraat: The key to OLAB’s work is interaction with the spectators who engage with it. Up to 8 people can interact at the same time. With their hands, they can change the hue of the analogue light, turning the building into a constantly changing landscape for the viewers.
Menschen, Philippe Morvan, Carrefour de l’Europe/Europakruispunt: Menschen was originally presented in Leipzig in 2019 to mark the 30th anniversary of the peaceful revolution of 1989. It pays tribute to the protesters of the day. It consists of 960 torches installed in a hanging crown. Each one represents an individual. Collected in some thirty European countries, they also symbolise the cultural diversity of Europe. A collection of autonomous lamps (incl. batteries) for Ukraine will be organised around this work during the festival. Following the on-site collection, these torches will be handed over to Ukraine as a joint action of several European Light Festival cities. This project symbolises international cooperation, actively involves the local people and sends out a strong signal for freedom and human rights.
Unframed, Design Lab, Musical Instruments Museum: Unframed is an immersive installation. In it, visitors explore the outer limits of their perception. Inspiration is drawn from Art Nouveau to create an enigmatic universe where the invisible becomes visible. An enchanting world where depth meets transparency.
Sibelga Bright Market, Sibelga, Les Petits Riens/Spullenhulp & visit.brussels: The Sibelga Bright Market is in its second edition. Sibelga, Les Petits Riens/Spullenhulp and visit.brussels have joined forces. At this evening market visitors can have damaged lighting repaired completely free of charge or buy second-hand lighting.
Mont des Airs, Antoine Goldschmidt & LSE, Mont des Arts/Kunstberg: The Brussels artist Antoine Goldschmidt and LSE (Laser System Europe) have joined forces to create the monumental installation “Mont des Airs”. This luminous work takes over the unique architecture of the Mont des Arts/Kunstberg to materialise its axes & perspectives by rays of light.
Reset Immersive, Whispering Lights, Reset: An immersive exhibition that invites the public to a playful plunge into digital artworks never before seen in Brussels. The exhibition is located in an unusual place. It invites you to contemplate, marvel and reflect through works in virtual reality, video mapping and a tailor- made soundscape.
3. Schaerbeek
Evanescent, Atelier Sisu, Plaine Brusiliaplein: Evanescent is an adjective, meaning the quality of being fleeting or vanishing quickly; impermanence. Evanescent is an immersive, light and sound temporary environment that aims to capture the concept of ephemerality and transience is a visual form: the bubble. The artwork was inspired during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the world stopped and everything we took for granted started to disappear. Atelier Sisu endeavoured to communicate this feeling of transient beauty, and the need to live in the moment through the idea of the bubble.
Limbes, Nico Neefs, Saint-Servais Church: Limbes is an immersive and contemplative installation that questions our relationship to time, cycles and our presence. In the image, bodies levitate at different rates, like a suspended, eternal ballet. Limbes is fed by theories, thoughts and musings on time. A sort of visual polyrhythm, the installation is constantly in motion. The flow of images is modulated by Thomas Vaquié’s musical composition.
GreenArt Project, collective piece, Ecole n°1 School: French and Greek artists with mental disabilities and students from primary school n°1 in Schaerbeek have been working together. They have shared their vision through cross-artistic challenges and collaborative work. Exchanges between the students and the artists took place over a period of 3 months. The sgraffiti by Privat Livemont that decorate Schaerbeek’s municipal school n°1 served as a thread for the works.
GreenArt Project is a joint creation by the artists of ESAT Ferme de Chosal (France), the Margarita organisation (Greece), non-profit organisation Patrimoine à roulettes and the 2nd and 5th year primary pupils of municipal school n°1 in Schaerbeek. GreenArt Project is funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme.
For iTernity, Katja Heitmann, Place Lehon: For iTernity is an audiovisual installation inspired by Mikhail Fokine’s famous solo ballet “Death of the Swan”. The swan has been uploaded to the cloud, where it is now “everywhere” and can dance forever. You can only see it through the screens. For iTernity is inspired by the virtual world where our data is ubiquitous and our profile pictures never age.
The music you hear is Mozart’s “Requiem”, sung by Californian youtuber Trisha Paytas. Trisha was falsely claimed to be dead on Wikipedia and had made it the subject of one of her videos. Now she’s singing her own requiem thanks to For iTernity.
Wheels of light, Bike for Brussels, Josaphat Park: Within the context of Bike for Brussels, Brussels Mobility is presenting ‘Wheels of light’ as part of Bright Festival. It’s an interactive installation that consists of 12 luminous trees connected to the bike counters. This project is a collaboration between Brussels Mobility and students from the Erasmus Brussels University of Applied Sciences and Arts (EhB), with a unique style added by Brussels designers CTRL + ALT.
Digital Modern Art, Tyrell, Matthieu Beghin, Ofer Smilansky, MagicStreet, Brusilia Tower: Digital Modern Art brings together Digital Art, Art Nouveau and Modernist architecture. This monumental laser work, projected on the Brusilia Tower, is the result of a collaboration between 4 Brussels artists.
Heritage Metaverse, Zoan, Ecole n°1 School: The audience is immersed in the digital version of the city of Turku in 1827. The former capital of Finland was destroyed by a great fire in the 19th century, but comes back to life thanks to the latest XR technologies and the Heritage Metaverse platform. The artistic team at Zoan, an XR studio in Helsinki, Finland, provides digital solutions to heritage institutions around the world.
