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FESTIVAL OF LIGHT / LUMIERE, DURHAM, UK DETAILS DURHAM SHINES ON


The second Durham LUMIERE was a huge success, attracting twice as many visitors as the first. Paul James was there to see what all the fuss was about.


Photograph: Robin Price


Rainbow by Deadgood Studio transformed Prebends Bridge. Wonderwood by Walter Holt created a magical forest along the banks of the River Wear whilst the Durham bridges were lit by lighting designer Martin Warden.


When I visited Durham’s inaugural festival of light in 2009, it was a pleasant enough event already professing to be the largest of its kind in the UK with the demise of Glasgow’s Radiance festival. Back then, 75,000 visitors came to see 20 installations including seven new commissions. It was a good event in a good city. So imagine my surprise when, two years later, I arrived in Durham to find a buzz I have rarely experienced anywhere in the world. The signs should have forewarned me that things would be different in 2011. The Radisson Blu hotel, the ‘official partner hotel’ for the event, only had rooms available for one night and, try as I might, no other accommodation in the city centre was available for the rest of the weekend. The Days Inn by the side of the motorway it was then. When I ventured into the city centre at 6pm for the start of proceedings it was clear that this second edition of LUMIERE had stepped up a gear. Throngs of people had gathered in Market Square where a giant snowdome covered the statue of the much reviled


Marquess of Londonderry (‘I Love Durham’ by French artist Jacques Rival). By the time the four day festival had finished, an estimated 140,000 people had taken to the streets of Durham to enjoy the 35 artworks that ranged from large-scale projections like Ross Ashton’s ‘Crown of Light’ which saw the Lindisfarne Gospels projected onto Durham Cathedral, to small scale neon work like Tracy Emin’s ‘Be Faithful To Your Dreams’ piece in an abandoned Durham graveyard. To a certain extent, LUMIERE 2011 was a victim of its own success. The crowded narrow streets and one way systems were no match for the volume of people and decisions need to be made as to whether Durham is sufficiently equipped for such a large-scale event. Nonetheless, the slight inconvenience of slow crowd movement and sometimes not being able to go where you wanted, did not take away from what was an excellent show. All credit should go to arts company Artichoke, best known for creating unforgettable events like ‘La Machine’ in


Liverpool or Antony Gormley’s ‘One & Other’, and who have organised both LUMIERE festivals. LUMIERE 2011 also included Lux Scientia, a collaboration with light festivals in Poland and Estonia, as well as four pieces created by artists from the North East, Brilliant, including ‘Rainbow’ by Deadgood Studio who used 120 Parcans with ACL lamps and a series of 28 LED panels to create a rainbow effect over the River Wear. As if that wasn’t enough, an illuminated waterfall from the Kingsgate Bridge (the last building to be designed by the great engineer Ove Arup) was created by Canadian artist Peter Lewis, with lighting by Speirs + Major. Possibly the star of the show was Ross Ashton’s ‘Crown of Light’ projected artwork on Durham Cathedral. Having projected onto the cathedral in 2009, Ashton was delighted to be asked back. “It’s a real testament to the piece and very flattering to be asked back with the same show. It’s also extremely rare for the same creation to be requested again in its entirety, offering those who enjoyed the experience


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