Bristol Light Festival

For four nights (Thur Feb 27-Sun March 1, 5-11pm nightly), the Bristol Light Festival will showcase renowned international light artists alongside Bristol talent across nine carefully selected locations to create a trail through the city centre.

Artists presenting work include acclaimed French visual artist Olivier Ratsi, who will transform Millennium Square with his large-scale work Frame Perspective. The huge sound and light piece will consist of a 30-metre-long luminous installation of repeating frames and LEDs, creating an impressive scale piece that disrupts the space in which it is set. The interacting lights and sounds alter the surrounding environment, creating an intense immersive experience for visitors altering their experience of reality.

Elsewhere, Jack Wimperis’ light project MilkBottle is a specially commissioned series of light sculptures, made from thousands of recycled milk bottles. The sculptures have been created to raise awareness about single-use plastics.

Hosted by Cabot Circus, MilkBottle Cages will see a sculpture of thousands of recycled milk bottles located in Quakers Friars, Cabot Circus. Each bottle is embedded with LEDs.

MilkBottle Screen is a 4 x 2.5m screen of 600 one-pint hanging milk bottles which will be situated on the bandstand in Castle Park, illuminating the route to Castle Bridge and guiding visitors along the Light Festival trail.

Joanie Lemercier presents two works. Nimbes is a full-dome piece created in 2014 in partnership with composer, James Ginzburg, a 15-minute show screened in the Planetarium at We The Curious. That will be immediately followed by Nebulae (2019), which will take visitors on a unique journey, following Lemercier’s artistic interpretation of a voyage into the cosmos and through time, exploring galaxies, constellations and witnessing several mesmerising cosmic events from the past.

Wildlife on the Waterfront is a bespoke projection created by Bristol charity, Send a Cow, in partnership with Bristol’s award-winning Limbic Cinema. The piece, which tells the tale of the people and wildlife of Uganda’s oldest national park will be projected onto Arnolfini as part of the Living with Wildlife appeal to protect people and wildlife in Uganda.

Former UWE student Tine Bech, who will be showcasing the playful Pink Enchantment (pictured during its residency in Reykjavik); Wave-Field Variation Q by Lateral Office and CS Design is a playful interactive light installation of giant seesaws in Queen Square.

A four-metre neon sign also features in the programme and will be installed by the entrance to the Harbourside near Cascade Steps featuring the Bristol saying ‘Cheers Drive.’

Finally, a collection of local artists are working together to create a unique light piece, titled Neighbours, to pay homage to the city’s graffiti culture.

The Light Festival will take visitors along several different routes from Cabot Circus to Queen Square, via locations such as Castle Park, Harbourside and the City Centre, discovering different installations along the way. At each location, visitors will be able to see, experience and enjoy light art installations that are visiting the South West for the first time as well as brand-new installations created exclusively for the Bristol Light Festival.

Maps of the various routes will be available online and from festival volunteers and there will also be free guided tours, which can be booked through the event website. As well as volunteers along the routes, a bespoke lit information point will be built in Queen Square for visitors to drop-in with their enquiries.

This is the first of a three-year series by Bristol City Centre Business Improvement District (BID), in partnership with the Arts and Events team at Bristol City Council and the Digital Cultures Research Centre at the University of the West of England.  The Festival is being delivered, curated and produced by Bristol based creative directors, Katherine Jewkes and Vashti Waite.

Top pic: Pink Enchantment by Tine Bech Studio, image from Reykjavik City Hall Bridge, Iceland