I like, I light. Turn me on, baby!
Off I went to visit a very special festival Fête des Lumières in Lyon, France during December 2012. I first saw the festival in 2009 and couldn’t stop thinking about it – what I experienced was simply breath-taking. So when my friends told me they were exhibiting once again at the festival, I was only too happy to take a winter holiday and meet them in Lyon.
Fête des lumières, or the Festival of Lights, the longest-existing and grandest light festival in the world is the most awaited annual public event of Lyon, drawing over three million people over four days of festivities, with the peak of activity occurring on the 8th December. A city known world-wide for its expertise in urban lighting, the Lyonnaise festival centres around illuminating the city’s architecture with spectacular light installations. The city centre is closed to traffic and public transport offered free of charge during the four festival evenings so as to allow visitors to easily get around the installation sites, so you imagine the sheer size of the entire festival. Surprisingly, the energy cost of the whole event accounts for only 0.1% of the annual consumption of Lyon’s street lighting.
Golden Virgin Mary at Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière
Fête des lumières’ origins date back to 1643 when the inhabitants of Lyon were struck by the plague and spared. During the outbreak, the city council promised to pay tribute to the Virgin Mary should she save them, so every year on 8 December candles were lit and offerings were given in her name. This uniquely Lyonnaise tradition of families placing candles on window sills is still observed today, in addition to the extravagant and professionally run light performances.
And this is the part of the festival that I truly like – it came from the people and not from the authorities or an event organizer, thus it is quite moving to see how the entire city comes together year after year to put on such a spectacular show for the world. Imagine four nights of light projections outside your apartment window coupled with dramatic music, millions of people looking up at your window.
To get to Lyon, I took a flight from Singapore to London (12.5hrs), then Paris (1.5hrs), then the TGV (2hrs). The entire journey took about 16 hours. Lyon is a very special place for me, because that was my first destination in Europe, first time I saw a light festival, and now the first time I saw snow. The snow-covered scenery on the TGV was a sight to behold. For a moment, I dreamt I was Snow White, although I know not what I would attract when I open my mouth to screech sing.
View of Lyon from atop the hill
Over 60 significant locations across all nine districts of Lyon become the canvas for the festival light installations – main shopping street Place de la République, city centre Place Bellecour, city square Place des Terreaux, churches like Cathedral Saint-Jean and its latest project La Confluence. Each year these key sites form the canvas for artists to interpret the public spaces through their artistic expression, transforming how the sites are typically viewed and unveiling the architectural treasures of the city in a beautiful and unique way.
For this trip, I wanted it to be as un-touristy as possible and live like a local. So I booked an apartment via AirBnB. It was a spacious, clean and comfortable penthouse in a building that was only five minutes’ walk from the train station. And cheaper than a hotel.
Here’s the view I woke up to at the apartment – snow!
The owner Guillaume was a really cool dude and my friend & I enjoyed his apartment so much we didn’t really feel like leaving the apartment. The funny part was – this was my first time booking and his first time renting. So we were figuring out how to book his place via the AirBnB system together, each other none the wiser. Haha.
All covered up to explore the festival. My friends were so awesome – they surprised me with a Festival Artist pass – I’m part of the team! *touched*
Silver scarf – H&M
Blue-Red Striped sweatshirt – Givenchy
Super long gloves – Marni
Pants – Undercover by Jun Takahashi
Ear muffs – Daiso
Checkered beret & Fur boots – from Tokyo Shibuya
Highlights by Hélène Richard and Jean-Michel Quesne @ Place des Terreaux
A grand lighting projection done on the three facades of Lyon’s city square. This is one of the focal sites for the festival, so artworks exhibited at this location are usually quite impressive and seen by one million festival goers.
Hai hai!
Silk Kokeshi dolls by Annelore Parot at l’Hôtel de Ville. Very interesting to see Asian content by a European in a European festival. And who’s cuter??? (Me! Me!)
The Dragon King by Bibi @ Place de la Republique (Lyon city’s main street)
This is one of my fave pieces – can you recognise what it is made up of?
The 30-metre long, 7-metre high dragon consists of traffic cones, LED lights and recycled materials. I met Bibi before when he exhibited in Singapore, and I must say he is quite an interesting character. What I like about this artwork is that it looks good both at night as well as in the daytime.
Light In by TILT @ Place Louis Pradel
This is my friends’ artwork – am so proud of them! This piece featuring giant lampshades with changing lights is a beauty to watch. I wish I had a garden big enough to adopt one of these…
And this was TILT’s artwork “My Public Garden” at the same location which I first set my eyes on in 2009, fell in love with, and got them to exhibit in Singapore. And the rest is history.
That’s Francois the charismatic leader of TILT. TILT regularly exhibits at light festivals around the world and in my opinion is one of the best light art troupes around. We regularly kept in touch despite my broken French and their broken English. They made me believe that chicken-and-duck-talk CAN work. More importantly, they are very sincere and loyal friends, which is also the reason why I would travel 16 hours, half the globe and brave the freaking cold just to catch up with them.
Roman-tyca by Hexagone Illumination @ Rue de la République
The main streets in the city centre were illuminated with thousands of lights, adding to the festive mood. These arches were inspired from the traditions of southern Europe, but to me they resembled something from Deepavali (Indian Festival of Lights) which we have back home.
I call this the Lovey-Dovey Street
How to make the best use of time when stuck in a human jam? Camwhore and do a Look of the Day photo, haha
More hearts. Maybe I should do this for my own windows!
Corazón by Agatha Ruiz de la Prada @ Place de la Bourse
A colorful heart paired with pounding music. I hope that’s what a guy feels when he sees me – excitedly pounding heart bursting with colours of the rainbow!
Ultrapictorial Lights by Laurent Langlois @ Théâtre des Célestins
The theatre facade is ‘painted’ in front of the viewer’s eyes. This is so good for a fashionably indecisive me – I can have a new room everyday to match the season!
A very simple yet effective light installation I saw in a church – shapes are cut our on a piece of paper, pink film pasted on and mounted around a bicycle wheel, fix on a bulb and voika – a very cute light artwork! I can definitely fall asleep looking at this on my ceiling…I will call this the auto sheep-counting mechanism.
Stop staring at my ass!
The Strange Lift by Stéphane Masson @ various train lifts
It’s quite fun to see different animals popping up on the glass door of the train lifts. People crowd around anticipating what to expect next, and best part of all – it’s a fully-functioning lift, so it’s quite funny to see the anticipation build up and the lift door suddenly open to offload its passengers and break the suspense.
Hot chestnuts! That, and vin chaud (mulled wine, or red wine boiled with cinnamon, orange peel and other spices) are definitely my fave snacks for the cold winter. And of course nothing beats a hot guy *wink*
The Anooki by Moetu Batlle et David Passegand @ Saint-Paul train station
Oh my gawd, these playful anookis were SO cute they had me mimicking them and giggling like a little girl! You definitely have to see the video.
The Sarabande of Magnificient Animals by L’Atelier de l’évènement
Bengal the tiger, Mala the cow, Langur the monkey, Hindi the elephant, Pavo the peacock and Naja the cobra – six giant puppets inspired by Indian traditions popped up at different parts of the city to wow festival goers. It was a treat bumping into the creatures. Hey – can I get a lift on Bengal the tiger?
Illuminated Dressed by Kim Tae-gon @ Salle Molière
Each of these breath-taking dressed were woven from 300km of fibre optic cable. Yes, 300km. Can I borrow one just for a night of Cinderella fantasy? And I also need a hot male servant behind me to carry the power generator for the lights..
I think this maybe the only time you can get three grown men so interested in a dress LOL.
Abyssal Immersion by Direction de l’Eclairage
A dark road tunnel has been transformed into an aquatic world with mysterious fish enclosed in the vault which are trying to escape to return to the river. A strong and memorable piece of artwork.
Festival guides go around the city in segways to provide directions and give out brochures, isn’t that cool?
Lamps, lamps and lamps. All sorts of lamps you can imagine.
Flamingos by David Lesort et Arnaud Giroud
An illuminated avian migration from the East
Illuminated garden.
Student works chosen for their originality and creativity in a competition organized by the Grands Ateliers, involving dozens of French schools of architecture, art, design and engineering.
Ring[Z] by Philippe Morvan
“The eye is the first circle, the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Find my switch
Floating Lights by Travesias de Luz
Made up of 200 colored floaters which light up like switches when you press on them, people were forming words with them, and it was really great to see them enjoying themselves.
The most gigantic torchlight I have seen
We caught sight of these human Christmas trees – they sing too!
La Confluence is the latest on-going urban redevelopment project in Lyon, and this is the first time the festival has been extended here to create awareness. See the artwork here.
We explored the light installations every night in the freezing cold winter until after midnight. The legs were sore, tummies hungry again when we got home from all the walking, yet there were so many more wonderful installations to see. And that’s why we have a Part 2 of the festival coming up…
