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Lumiere London

Produced by Artichoke, the festival Lumiere London transformed 30 locations for four evenings with 3D projections, interactive installations and other light works.

For four evenings, from 14 to 17 January, the light festival Lumiere London transformed 30 locations across some of the capital’s most iconic areas with 3D projections, interactive installations and other light works.

Produced by Artichoke and supported by the Mayor of London, it follows Lumiere Durham (held in 2009), which is set to return to the medieval city for the fourth time this November, and Lumiere Derry~Londonderry in 2013.

Highlights from the programme included Janet Echelman’s installation 1.8 London (an enormous net sculpture strung between buildings at Oxford Circus and named after one of the astonishing impacts of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in 2011), Shaida Walking by Julian Opie – a new, permanent public work – and Aquarium from Benedetto Bufalino and Benoit Deseille, who turned the iconic red telephone box into an aquarium full of exotic fish.

Spectra-3 by field.io in King’s Cross, was a living, sensing and moving light sculpture, attempting to connect with the people around it – and with something far, far out there. Diver – an original commission by Art Lights London, made possible thanks to Susie Allen and Jenny Christensson – is instead part of an ongoing series of light-works developed by Ron Haselden over a number of years. He has invited people to make drawings on a number of subjects that are then faithfully scaled up as light-works and presented in public places as an illuminated tableaux with a particular reference to each chosen site. They have included work with primary and junior school children, and offenders.