A line-up of 28 innovative art installations made up of glowing lights has brightened up Singapore’s Marina Bay waterfront promenade on Friday, transforming it into a huge gallery featuring art and technology.
The Wishing! Tree is presented by The Living! Project , a project conceived by Singapore’s Allan Lim and Kenny Eng with renowned Singapore sculptor Sun Yu-li. Image: i Light Marina Bay
The third edition of i Light Marina Bay, Singapore’s biennial light art festival, opened for viewing on Friday from 7.30pm to 11pm daily, and will be free for the public until 30th March.
This edition, themed ‘Light+HeART’, features the creative use of technology by local and international artists as they seek to evoke “emotive awareness” from viewers regarding their behaviour towards the environment.
‘Floating Hearts’ - a wall of illuminated hearts is a creation by a group of artists from Spain called Travesias De Luz. Image: i Light Marina Bay
The event is being held as part of the ‘Switch Off, Turn Up’ campaign organised by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, which invites businesses around the Marina Bay area and building owners to switch off non-essential lighting and turn up temperature of air-conditioning to save electricity.
This year, a record 52 buildings pledged their support for the campaign - up from 42 in 2012.
The land use planning and conservation agency said energy savings from the building owners’ efforts will be more than enough to offset the energy used by the light art installations during the three-week show.
Participating artists included the use of recyclable materials and adopted energy-efficient lighting technologies in the creation of their light art installations. The festival also follows a set of sustainability-drive guidelines on event management and undergoes a strict carbon audit.
‘Giant Dandelions’ creates an impression of being in a forest of 90 larger-than-life light flowers, by French-Filipino artist Olivia d’Aboville. Image: i Light Marina Bay
Jason Chen, URA’s Director for Place Management,said: “This is not just an art festival, but also a platform where we hope visitors can understand more about sustaining the environment for our future generations.”
Throughout the festival, there will also be performances, outdoor concerts, photography competitions and guided tours, including a series of dialogues and forums about sustainable light art.
The campaign will also participate with Earth Hour Singapore’s ‘Lights-off’ activities on 29 March and the light art show will be switched off for an hour from 8.30pm to 9.30pm.
