This is not about mappings or figures. It is not about replicating the same proposals every year, nor about growing in facilities, nor about breaking audience records. That Llum BCN is a festival without a motto is a declaration of intentions for an event that, with its creative commitment, has won over the local public and, due to its artistic level, international admiration. Yesterday afternoon, a new edition began, number thirteen, with the focus on the thirteen invited artists plus the proposals from fifteen design and architecture schools in the city, a pool that pushes forward.
Behind Llum BCN, with the same dedication as discretion, works Maria Güell Ordis, the artistic director of the festival, promoted by the Barcelona Institute of Culture (ICUB). Set designer and creator of the La Invisible lighting project studio (Balenciaga Museum, Mejorar restaurant, Premis Lamp… and various festivals), Güell has worked on the artistic team of Llum since the first edition and formally assumed direction in 2019. “ We never presented it as a copy of any successful festival, it was born as a festival for the city and from the first edition we were surprised that, without being something spectacular and with some very personal artistic proposals, the public gave in,” he says.
Llum was born in Ciutat Vella in 2012, but after six editions it had to consider a change of scenery, “there were so many people in the streets that you couldn’t move…”, remembers Güell. Although the possibility of Montjuic was raised, where the visionary lighting engineer Carles Buïgas designed the Magic Fountain in 1929 (with 4,760 light bulbs of the time), Poblenou soon won. “We liked the neighborhood and I think it was a success –Güell reflects– the combination of undeveloped green spaces, with unique buildings of modern architecture, historical heritage, creative studios, talent…”. A neighborhood under construction that Llum allows us to rediscover in each edition since 2018.
“The fact that it is not a festival with a delimited space or an entrance door eliminates the layer of ‘this is not for me,’” adds Güell. Groups of friends, families, children, young people and adults walked yesterday and will do so again this afternoon (from 6:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.) and tomorrow, Sunday (from 6:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.). Last year, the City Council counted a whopping 220,000 visitors. The organizers propose three itineraries (all three begin and end near a public transport stop) but the Llum accepts all types of visits.
The Design Museum and its surroundings are one of the epicenters of the festival. One of the facades has been converted into a large mural of ephemeral and contemplative scenes signed by Carline Robert and Vincent Morisset. In this area, the Glòries Tower stands out, reflecting the sunlight as if the building, and by extension the public, were located on the planet Mars. It is the proposal of the artist Elisa Storelli, who has turned the building into a giant sundial, “which invites us to reflect on the passage of time and the conception of the cosmos,” explains Aleix Pratdepàdua, director of the Mirador de la Torre Glòries, These days open until midnight and with half price admission.
One of the unique features of the festival is the variety of the stages. “Each artist adapts his work to these spaces and the spaces are transformed with the works,” Güell concludes. In the case of the Mercat dels Encants, the commissioner turned to Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño, who had worked on suspended works.
“With this festival, Barcelona shows that art can be made in public spaces and that a large number of people can enjoy it, which is why it has become a benchmark,” adds Juliette Bibasse, international guest curator and stalwart of Llum since the edition. 2017. From his hand come proposals such as those by Anna Ridler (a flower clock) and the avant-garde experience by Joris Trijbos and Nicky Assman (the two works in the Parc del Poblenou) and the Jacob’s Wall by Parker Heyl installed in Gutenberg Square.
The participation, starting with the third edition of Llum, of the city’s design and architecture schools, marked another turning point for the festival, “because it made it more participatory, more popular and more community-based.” One of this year’s artists, Jou Serra (who exhibits his Range in between at the Auditori) debuted as a student. Also Josep Poblet, now in the official programming, with Lux Domus – an installation that shapes architecture with light and that invites a walk in a calculatedly transformed space – made his first collaboration at Llum BCN with the help of Jordi Canudas and Antoni Arola. The latter, with a studio in the neighborhood, a regular at the event and whose facilities have also grown with the festival, has turned the lobby of the Teatre Nacional into a forest of light, without defined time and space.
To the thirteen installations by the artists – “I prefer to reduce the number of works rather than give up a good production,” Güell points out – are added the fifteen proposals from the students, those from Off Llum and other activities, such as the professional day that This morning brings together artists and curators of lighting festivals at the Auditori Disseny Hub.
