The 3rd Vilnius Light Festival will take place in the capital of Lithuania one week from now, on the evening of Friday, 13 August – it will invite you to take a walk along a new route set admirably with beautiful coloured lights, where two dozen installations will be presented.
Fans of the festival who are ready for new discoveries, will have a long-awaited opportunity to experience the surroundings of a completely different city. They will be able see the squares of the Old Town and the New Town, the green spaces, the historical and architectural objects in a new way, as they will have acquired invisible forms created by using artistic solutions of the lights.
“The Light Festival illuminates not only the city and the sky, but also travel routes. It creates impressions and memories, surprises and provides new and unforgettable experiences. We invite you to install the Vilnius Light Festival mobile application and to visit Vilnius at night by following an exclusive route,” said Paulius Jurgutis, the head of the Vilnius Cultural Centre, which is the festival organiser, inviting everyone to not hesitate and join the 3rd Vilnius Light Festival which will take place on 13–15 August.
The organisers and partners of the 3rd Vilnius Light Festival – Darnu Group, which creates spaces for everyday life, work and leisure, invite you to become acquainted with the light-playing capital. The route of the 3rd Vilnius Light Festival this year will explore a new district of the city – Paupys which is filled with aesthetics and harmony. In this district of Vilnius located in the historic Old Town of Vilnius on the slope of the Vilnelė – a community of which creates its own traditions and rhythm of life – festival visitors will encounter the installation “Tokyo” in the square of Aukštaičių street, which was created by Linartas Urniežius, an artist famous for his 3D visual projects. It will move the visitors to the streets of the Japanese capital filled with advertisements and juxtapose two different worlds, revealing the exclusivity of Japanese advertising and the natural beauty of the Land of the Rising Sun.
Right next to it, near the metal beam bridge of Užupis–Paupys, the work “Ratefate” by Arvydas Buinauskas, one of the best light artists, will invite you to go through existential reflections.
“Buildings, squares and streets without art lack charisma. And the art of lights at night is also an occasion to look at the same buildings and architecture with a different set of eyes,” says Akvilė Folkanskienė, Corporate Affairs and Marketing Director of Darnu Group, the company donating works of art in Paupys.
On the outskirts of Paupys, in Kūdros Park, the festival visitors will be attracted by the dancing fountains “Liquid dance” and a charming short astronomical event – the Nova created by guests from the UK lighting studio Studio Vertigo.
The route from the shelter of Paupys community, the Festival will continue towards the Old Town.
The interactive light projection “Interference” by the German artist Claudia Reh will envelop the building located at Maironio st. 25 like a second skin.
As you ascend the stairs of Česlovas Milošas and admire the panorama of Užupis, one of the oldest district of the capital, and the festival will continue in the streets of old Vilnius, delighting the visitors with the rhythm of the night life of the Old Town.
As you walk along the street Saint Casimir, named after the patron Saint of Lithuania, the installation “Sluoksniai” will invite you to get to know and feel the true spirit of Vilnius, and Pasažas backstreet will greet you with the mystical “ŠIApusANApus” light of scenographer Marius Puskunigis.
Hazelnut Owl Square will intrigue guests with the sophisticated, three-dimensional composition of the Dutch artist Windows of Light, while the Rūdninkai Square will be brightly lit by the colourful modular cube installation “Hypar” created by other Dutch interactive and intelligent lighting enthusiasts Hypar Collective.
Lydos street will change beyond recognition – bright, dynamic and deconstructed “Ženklai” created by Justas Bø will shine here. Kotryna Čalkaitė’s installation “Procesas” will invite everyone to be present and be the stars of that moment on the terrace of the MO Museum.
The route of the 3rd Vilnius Light Festival will move through the Old Town, then towards to the new part of Vilnius. The Reformers’ Garden, which has been renewed this summer, will be adorned with two installations. The first one is “Jacob’s Wall”, created by artist Parker Heyl at the Bartlett School of Architecture’s interactive architecture laboratory in London, using aesthetic analogue electronics and unpredictable mechanical systems isntead of the precise digital control. The second installation will be the audiovisual installation “The Spin”, inspired by the theories of quantum physics from the beginning of the 20th century, which will invite the visitors to experience the transformations of the world of quantum mechanics in the Reformers’ Garden.
Next to the monument to Frank Zappa (K. Kalinausko st. 3) visitors will see the shining octagon “Octo”, by French artist Emilien Guesnard and symbolizing the connections between the material and spiritual worlds, and at the beginning of Pylimo street, the giant message “Coexist” will invite you to raise your head, take a wider look at things, coexist and live peacefully. The installation “Jungtis” by Vilnius resident Vėjas Aliukas in Petras Cvirka Square will invite you to overcome polarisation, to listen, negotiate and make connections.
Finally, the festival route will take you on Tauras Hill, from which you will be able to see the early 20th century buildings of Vilnius, and behind them, on the right bank of the Neris you will see the skyscrapers of the new city centre. It is quite symbolic that at the highest point of the festival route, the art installation “Hope” will light up, reflecting the idea of always unifying under the idea of hope in difficult times.
The excitement-filled walk will finish on Gediminas Avenue, where a sound collection of stars – the installation “Galaxy” – will offer you to experience the beauty of the endless expanses of space at the Hilton Garden Inn (Gedimino ave. 44).
The visitors of the festival will also be delighted by a couple of additional artistic light objects: at Vokiečių st. 13A, an intriguing light and sound installation “Ne aš” is on display, exposing the human brain and thoughts, and the exhibition space “Istorijų namai” of the National Museum of Lithuania, was brightly lit by architect Alfredas Trimonis.
In order to conquer the multi-layered route of the festival, to make it easier to find and visit all the objects will once again be easier with the assistance of an updated mobile application that can be downloaded or updated here – App Store: http://bit.ly/vilniuslightfestival or Google Play: http://bit.ly/ vilniuslightfestival1
We invite you to visit the 3rd Vilnius Light Festival on 13–15 August (the weekend of the holiday of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin): on 13-15 August from 22:00 to 3:00, and on the last evening of 15 August from 22:00 to 3:00.
More information about the 3rd Vilnius Light Festival: https://www.facebook.com/VilniusLightFestival or https://lightfestival.lt/
