Doesn’t it make sense to have a festival of public art and installations during the darkest months of the year to animate the city? That is exactly what Amsterdam does in their annual Light Festival that is held every December and January. The installation “Absorbed by the Light” created by British artist Gali May Lucas was placed in December 2018 outside the Hermitage Amsterdam. This piece is a visual commentary on how we use screens constantly to enlighten our lives, while that lit screen moves us away from the surrounding environs.
As the artist states “I see this every day in parks and in restaurants, especially in winter when there are more hours of darkness…I chose to create something instantly recognisable and quite literal. But eerie at the same time.”
Amsterdam uses walking, biking and boat tours to visit the many curated exhibits on display for sixty days.
The light festival begins at 5:00 p.m. and ends at 11:00 p.m. for the duration of the festival. You can find out more how to view the festival here.
The short YouTube video below shows the highlights of the 2018-2019 Light Festival.
