The iLight Festival is one of the biggest art and light festivals of the year. Held every March, the annual festival is now bigger and bolder with a whole new range of never-before-seen light installations and additional side events running concurrently. Missed it? No worries, here are some of the highlights of this year's edition of the iLight Festival.
What is the iLight Festival?
The iLight Festival is a sustainable light installation art festival which started in 2010 and held in the Marina Bay area. Formerly a bi-annual event, the event started to become an annual event from this year onwards due to overwhelming demand. With a new range of sustainable light art installations by talented local and international artists, visitors to the festival will not be disappointed at all.
The 2017 edition of the festival is also its biggest yet with the inclusion of two mini events, ArtZoo and Gastrobeats, taking place at the same time.
Top iLight Art Installations
Although a majority of the art installations in the iLight Festival were definitely worth a look, we have narrowed it down to just 6 in random order. Each installation will have a description and an explanation about what the installation is all about.
Featured iLight Installation #1: Horizontal Interference
Using a variety of colourful cords and wires that wrap around a now disused structure, Horizontal Interference aims to create a poetic and powerful image moving in the wind. The disused structure, known as Mist Walk, used to provide wonderful cold mists to cool down passers by. Now, artists use the structure to showcase their art thanks to its unique shape.
Horizontal Interference is popular among iLight patrons due to its colourful imagery. At night, the art work glows its way to showcase its beauty. The artwork was created by Katarzyna Malejka and Joachim Sługocki, two Polish artists fascinated by the medium of light and their role in connecting people.
Featured iLight Installation #2: HYBYCOZO
Inspired by a mishmash of science, technology, geometry and materials, HYBYCOZO uses intricate patterns to create a light installation that certainly wows the crowd at the Esplanade's promenade. The intricate shapes also represent ancient Islamic tiles and patterns made by particie physicists, creating a lantern-like illusion which changes colour every few seconds.
HYBYCOZO was made by Yelena Filipchuk, a former Google and YouTube employee and Serge Beaulieu, a veteran industrial designer. With their experience in media and design, it's no wonder HYBYCOZO is a sight to behold.
Feature iLight Installation #3: Northern Lights
Named after the actual Northern Lights found in Norway, the Northern Lights installation aims to mimic the scene right here in the heart of the Singapore city. The dynamic movements of the light installation together with the constant changing of colours every few seconds makes it a very attractive installation for photographers.
The installation was made from over a 100 strategically placed LED lights that interacted with the surroundings giving that surreal Northern Lights-like feeling. Northern Lights was created by Aleksandra Stratimirovic, who has experience creating light installations and showcasing them in public spaces at countries like Sweden.
Featured iLight Installation #4: Dande-lier
The name Dande-lier is a mixture of chandelier and dandelion and is made to look like one. For this installation, umbrellas were used to convey the feeling of weightlessness and to change the perspective of an everyday object. When entering the life-like installation, they will be presented with an alternate warped world with a smart lighting system that changes dynamically.
Created by design consultancy, COLOURS: Collectively Ours, they're a Singaporean team that creates a range of public furniture and lighting designs for various events. The Dande-lier installation was definitely an eye-catching installation indeed.
Featured iLight Installation #5: Ocean Pavilion
One of the biggest iLight installations has got to be the Ocean Pavilion. Sponsored by Evian, the French bottled water company, the Ocean Pavilion is made out of 25000 upcycled Evian bottles with the help of students from over 11 schools. The installation aims to encourage patrons to reuse and upcycle their stuff.
Made by UK artist, Luke Jerram, who has lots of experience creating public art sculptures, installations and live art projects, the Ocean Pavilion is inspired by microscopic organisms found in rivers and seas in Singapore. Quite an interesting way to find inspiration I would say.
Featured iLight Installation #6: Secret Galaxies
Another iLight installation worth a mention is Secret Galaxies, a projection show screened on the exterior walls of the iconic lotus-shaped ArtScience Museum of the Marina Bay Sands. The show is all about visual imageries based on human relationships with the night sky. The imageries shown during the screening is too great to be described in words and it was best to experience it first hand.
Created by local art group Syndicate, they have represented Singapore in Europe and the US for their works that range from projection mapping, photography and art. They were also featured in various events clubs and music festivals around the world.
More iLight Installations
Here are some more photos of iLight installations that were not featured in the initial list. Every single piece of artwork has a story to tell and attracted a lot of attention from the patrons. More information about each artwork can be found in the iLight 2017 website.
All About Gastrobeats
After a walk around the festival, you can head over to Gastrobeats, a night market filled with various food stalls owned and operated by independent food entrepreneurs and food companies. Grab a bite ranging from hot and crispy churros, Thai milk teas, submarine sandwiches and so much more.
Plenty of standing tables and regular tables and seats were available for patrons to consume their purchases. There were also plenty of food samples given out to patrons as well and we all know free food samples complete the foodie experience.
A Fun Side Carnival For You
There's also a small carnival held at the open space right beside the Gastrobeats night market where you can purchase tickets and ride on the adrenaline-pumping rides. The operator, Uncle Ringo, is a famous roving carnival ride operator which operates in various other temporary events.
They're a famous sight night markets in HDB neighbourhoods and large scale annual events like the annual River Hongbao festival during the Chinese New Year. Definitely a great way to complement your trip to the iLight Festival!
This Is ArtZoo
At the Marina Bay Floating, there's ArtZoo, a small park where you can find lots of cute and exciting inflatable animals. Unlike the rest of the iLight Festival, the event is a ticketed one as the demand for the event was really high especially among children. It's also one of the few events where the child admission tickets are higher than adults.
Just like a normal zoo, there were different zones where you could view different kinds of inflatable animals at their so-called 'habitats'. The ArtZoo is a great place for children and the young-at-heart and there were definitely plenty of photo ops too if you visited the park.
iLight Festival Workshops & Activities
The iLight Festival also has plenty of exciting workshops and activities available for patrons. Guests could learn more about the sustainable light installations by the artists themselves and they could also learn to create basic light installations as well. Plenty of workshops for kids were available as well teaching them about the importance of light sustainability. Other activities available include roving performances, concerts performed by local independent bands and the iconic Silent Disco.
As March 2017 was also the month where Earth Hour will take place, the iLight Festival also participated in the annual event where some of their light installations will either dim or completely switch for one hour at night. Just like Earth Hour itself, it aims to raise awareness about saving the earth and even a small contribution is enough to make a change if everybody joins forces to save the planet.
Conclusion
Overall, the iLight Festival never disappoints. The 2017 edition is its biggest yet with the addition of several new events that run alongside the main festival giving visitors more reasons to visit this iconic annual festival. Definitely will look forward to next year's edition with more exciting sustainable light installations to come!
More Information
Official Website: https://www.ilightmarinabay.sg