Date of Issue：March 19, 2019
・Activity 1／Belgrade of Light 2019 （2019/02/04-02/09）
・Activity 2／World Lighting Journey 2018 Retrospective: An Interview with the Chief Mende（2019/02/18）
Belgrade of Light 2019
2019/02/04-02/09 | Aleksandra Stratimirovic
Belgrade of Light event, organised by Belgrade Lighting Detectives, opened a new decade of activities with programme Imagine Light during the period 4th to 9th of February at KC GRAD (Belgrade, Serbia).
■Lighitng Detectives Belgrade Chapter
Belgrade of Light 2019 was held for 6 days at KC GRAD. Five artists, art groups and collectives, with their dynamic performances, installations and exhibitions played with motion, light and sound, transforming gallery at KC GRAD, into entirely different experience every night during the event.
THE BOX | Q / TI / JA by Radio.Nica
■Day 1：THE BOX | Q/TI/JA
Spectacular performance by Radio.Nica – [THE BOX | Q / TI / JA] opened Belgrade of Light 2019. The performance was inspired with “The Ray of the Microcosm” by Petar II Petrovic Njegos, and with the help of the graphoscopic alchemy, lasers, crystals and other analog sources of light, Radio.Nica was creating pure magic on the stage.
Radio.Nica is a flexible and ever-changing group of artists with different backgrounds (theater directors, designers, dramaturges, performers, circus artists etc.) experimenting with light design.
LUMINESCENCE by Incredible Bob
■Day 2： LUMINESCENCE
High quality, dense, Belgrade’s dark and Luminescence in it – a light installation by Incredible Bob. This darkness intercepted with light from various light sources, accompanied by sounds created a kind of a hypnopompic atmosphere for audience on the second day of Belgrade of Light. Incredible Bob is a Belgrade scene desperado. He walks a thin line between glitch art and show business. No matter what, Bob will continue to search for an answer to the question: What’s new in new media?
Natasa Todorovic, Leonel Kaplan, Aleksandra Stratimirovic
■Day 3：WAVES
Science & Art submerged in the performance WAVES – an experimental light and sound installation by visual artist Aleksandra Stratimirovic and Argentinian trumpet player Leonel Kaplan. Their performance was a prologue for WEAVING THROUGH THE SOLAR SYSTEM a scientific lecture of astronomer Nataša Todorović in which she explains unusual structures and movements of celestial bodies in the space.
ISKRA.KOZMA by Lansiranje
■Day 4：ISKRA.KOZMA
Young art collective Lansiranje premiered thier cosmic performance ISKRA.KOZMA. With the help of costumes, scenography, lights and music, they have taken us a step further into the world from their fantasy, in which everyone is welcome to be free, different, imaginative… After a successful launching into this weird world, the performance grew into a party.
The basis of the Lansiranje consists of four femaliens but in fact, the crew is made up of everyone involved in the creative process, especially those who love to experiment with light, sound and contact with the unknown.
POLITICS OF RENDERING by Mark Brogan
■Day 5：POLITICS OF RENDERING
Exhibition “Politics of Rendering” by artist Mark Brogan is a photo-wallpaper on a 16-meter long wall of the KC Grad gallery. The image on the wallpaper presents a virtual space, seemingly contiguous with the actual gallery space, modelled with digital 3D architectural tools. Brogan models into his wallpaper images’optical figures’. These distort, refract and filter the virtual scenes before and in which they stand. In a way, they endow the digitally composed scenes in the photo-wallpaper images with a painterly element.
Workshop SHIMMERING
■Day 6：SHIMMERING
Workshop for children Shimmering is without of doubts the most cheerful and the most lovable part of Belgrade of Light. Once again, the kids were creative and imaginative and we played together with colors, lights and shadows with the help of the overhead projector and slide projectors. Even the parents joined Shimmering and created together with the kids and us because it was so much fun.
Workshop SHIMMERING
■Day 7：LIGHTSCAPES
LIGHT WALK
Belgrade of Light 2019 was closed with LIGHTSCAPES open discussion organized by Belgrade Lighting Detectives. As the first activity of the event Belgrade Lighting Detectives organized LIGHT WALK through Belgrade, so we shared our impressions from the walk at this discussion. Our guests were also representatives of the Center for the Promotion of Science who presented the new project: European Artificial Intelligence Laboratory – AI Lab.
ISKRA.KOZMA by Lansiranje
ABOUT BELGRADE OF LIGHT
Belgrade of Light is a non-profit event dedicated to the development and promotion of the culture of light. Ever since its founding in 2008, the goal of the event has been to assemble in Belgrade and in Serbia prominent international and local individuals and groups and to open an inspiring new chapter in approaching light – whether it concerns an artistic expression and design, energy saving or simply identity of a city and visions of a brighter future. By organizing exhibitions and art interventions in urban areas, educational workshops, lectures and programs for children and youth, Belgrade of Light has built a reputation of an event that, by employing light technologies, develops authentic creative and experimental practices and, through its program content, establishes platforms for an open debates on lighting and light.
BELGRADE LIGHTING DETECTIVES
So far, Belgrade of Light has had the opportunity to host numerous experts in the fields of architectural lighting design, science and art. They include people from Belgrade and Serbia but also those from many other cities and countries – Japan, Singapore, USA, Germany, Sweden, France, Denmark, Slovenia, Spain, Italy, Switzerland. International connections have also been established in cooperation with educational institutions, which brought student participants from Japan, China, Chile, Greece, Tunisia, India, Brazil and Romania, to our experimental workshops. Through presentations and exchange of experiences Belgrade of Light has forged close relations with organizers of prominent European light festivals, particularly with the Lighting Guerrilla Festival from Ljubljana and light festivals from Lyon, Tallinn and Eindhoven.
THE BOX | Q / TI / JA by Radio.Nica
Find more at www.belgradeoflight.com
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/belgradeoflight/
Instagram: @belgradeoflight
Photo: Vojislav Gelevski
World Lighting Journey
2018 Retrospective: An Interview with the Chief Mende
2019/02/18 Yuichi Anzai
On the Lighting Detectives Facebook page, we have been sharing the “World Lighting Journey” every weekend. As a summary of our activities in 2018, we conducted an interview with our chief, Kaoru Mende.
At Café RÉFECTOIRE in Meiji Jingu-mae
—In 2017, there were many posts featuring aerial nightscapes, but the 2018 posts were rich in variety. Among them, the most-viewed post was the toplight of the Pantheon in Rome. This was followed by the light-filled landscapes of Bologna, and then Stockholm during the “blue moment.” What are your thoughts on these results, Mende-san?
Aerial nightscape during the “blue moment,” Stockholm
Chief Mende: I imagine most of the people viewing these posts are in Japan. We are always drawn to things that are startling, unfamiliar, or from a culture different from our own. That’s probably why people see the Pantheon and think, “Wow, that’s incredible!” I suppose many of the World Lighting Journey posts feature beautiful photos taken abroad?
The toplight of the Pantheon, Rome
—That is not necessarily the case, but since it is for the weekend, we do select beautiful photos for everyone to enjoy.
Chief Mende: I understand the desire to share many photos of “good” light, but there is also unpleasant lighting and scenery all around us. On the Detectives’ page, I think it would be good to post things that make us think, “This would be even better if it were done this way.” For instance, the Eiffel Tower starts sparkling and flashing around 8:00 PM. I’m sure it’s for the tourists, but I don’t think the Eiffel Tower needs to imitate the nightscapes of Shanghai.
—You mean the “Champagne Flash” of the Eiffel Tower. While beautiful nightscape photos are everywhere on social media, there are very few posts that show scenes leaving room for debate.
Chief Mende: LPA has published several books, and people tell me—not that they’re teasing the photogenic completion photos featured in them—”Wow, Mr. Mende, LPA’s work is truly beautiful!” When I hear that, I hesitate on whether to take it as a compliment. Our job is to ensure we don’t create anything unpleasant up to a certain level; that is an ironclad rule where we must not fail. So, while being “beautiful” is good, it isn’t enough. A “good job” is what comes after that. If people say it’s beautiful and the conversation ends there, lighting design becomes something quite boring.
It is good to be beautiful, but that alone is not enough.
—So you mean posts that don’t just end with a “Like.”
Chief Mende: When you’re in the design business, some people feel the need to explain their concepts with long-winded prefaces even when it’s not necessary. In reality, the essence of design is something that should be recognized as wonderful even without words. However, the purpose of our social media posts is to provide a topic for discussion rather than just showing a final design result. It’s better to have words that reveal a person’s individual perspective—how they felt at the moment they took the photo. That way, readers can enjoy the differences between the poster’s viewpoint and their own.
― We want people to enjoy it as a good read, as well.
Chief Mende: We shouldn’t only focus on aerial views or photos of entire buildings; micro-scale, humanscaled subjects are also great. In this photo of Italy, there are people, but the shot is still a bit far from the subjects. If you were to zoom in close on that dog or those people, the spilled light from the shop window in the background would be emphasized more effectively. Take Studio Ghibli, for example—the light depicted in their backgrounds expresses the very air, sound, and smell of the scene. So, while beautiful nightscapes or ethereal light falling on architecture aren’t bad, it gets boring if that’s all we show. Instead, if there’s a discovery of light found just “rolling around” in our daily lives, it sparks more conversation—people saying, “Whoa! I can’t believe you noticed that!” or “Exactly, these things are everywhere.”
Street view of Bologna
― It’s true; I think we’ve had many beautiful photos that look like they came straight out of a magazine.
Chief Mende: People probably work hard to keep others out of the viewfinder to get that “perfect” shot. I understand that urge, but if you zoom in to a micro-level, you might discover two or three ants having a little scrap—suddenly there’s a story, and it becomes much more engaging. Or someone might post, “Doesn’t the bread in front of me look unappetizing? Is it because of the light?” Then others can chime in with advice on how to make it look delicious. That kind of mutual inspiration is far more interesting. I’ll make an effort to drop in some of my own “unsolicited” comments on the weekends as well.
Doesn’t the bread in front of me look unappetizing? Is it because of the light?” Questions like these invite comments on how to make it look better. That kind of mutual inspiration is much more interesting.
― I’ll make sure our posts invite diverse opinions from our members and don’t just become an archive of “pretty pictures.”
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please feel free to leave a comment!
