Medieval city streets set to glow in the dark

Nov 10 2009 By David Whetstone, The Journal

The lights go on in Durham this week but we’re not talking Christmas trees. David Whetstone previews Lumiere.

WHEN darkness falls at the end of the week, Durham will put on a coat of many colours. Lumiere, the follow-up to last year's Enlightenment, will see the city illuminated by a series of light-based sculptures and installations.

More than 50 British and overseas artists have been assembled to transform the city as part of the free festival produced by London- based arts production company Artichoke.

Lumiere runs from Thursday until Sunday and is in the tradition of the European light festivals where leading British projection artist Ross Ashton fine-tuned his skills.

Ross has transformed many great buildings with projected light and plans to give Durham Cathedral the treatment, effectively transforming one huge wall into a screen and Palace Green into an outdoor cinema.

Ross has worked with composer and arranger Robert Ziegler and sound engineer John del’Nero to create a 12-minute son et lumiere called Crown of Light.

On the continent, a son et lumiere (sound and light) is a show telling the history of a historic building. In Durham, Ross is promising images from the Lindisfarne Gospels and of the cathedral interior.

Screened repeatedly throughout the festival, it promises to be a stunning Lumiere centrepiece.

But the festival also boasts six other new commissions, including Nine Men Drawing by Ron Haselden, an artist who has permanent work installed in Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Newcastle.

This is a collaboration relating to another famous Durham institution, Durham Prison.

The artist worked with members of the prison art class who each produced a drawing which Haselden has recreated in low voltage LED light. The finished pieces, some of them 10ft tall, will be installed behind the cathedral, "highlighting the links between both institutions and providing an opportunity for us all to reflect on the nature of community and the nature of art", according to Artichoke.

A similar work by Ron Haselden saw him collaborating with a class of schoolchildren at London’s Canary Wharf.

Projected on to the buildings of Market Place – to the accompaniment of a city soundscape created by Newcastle-based sound engineer John Howes – will be photographs of 100 local people.

This is the work of lighting architects Speirs and Major Associates and is called A Place for the People.

Photon, a new commission from FIELD, a London-based graphic studio, is described as a playful, magical installation for children of all ages.

It consists of a series of large images projected on to the ground which contain thousands of colourful, glowing elements that float and twirl around, inviting people to play, dance, jump and interact.

Motion Field, designed by Filament, a Newcastle-based collective, comprises 2m-high moving tubes of light arranged like plants in a field. As people move through them, glimpses of their passage are left behind, rather like a camera on a low exposure.

Simon Corder’s Winter Garden will be based on the Grade I listed Elvet Bridge. It is described as an exotic garden of light reaching from the rain shadow under the arches to hang high above from a towering mature tree. "Vivid colours like strange tropical blooms drip from the trees, lifting the spirits in the dark winter months when few flowers are to be seen".

Completing the list of new commissions is Flux, an installation by London lighting studio Creatmosphere and its founder, Laurent Louyer.

"Begin your walk from Pennyferry Bridge and a familiar stretch of river will be transformed into a magical landscape before your very eyes," promise the organisers.

Apart from these new commissions, Lumiere will showcase work already seen and enjoyed elsewhere. Mia Kominsky’s Let Her Shine was developed as part of an art course and shows what can be achieved with low-voltage lighting effects.

The young artist’s piece will be displayed in the front window of a Durham dress shop.

There will also be performances by two French theatre companies.

On Friday at 7.30pm you can see Herbert’s Dream by Compagnie des Quidams. The piece has already been performed more than 400 times around the world and features mysterious, white, stilted figures.

On Saturday – also 7.30pm – La Salamandre will perform Passage, leading the audience through Durham’s medieval streets.

Lumiere benefits from Artichoke’s two-year sponsorship deal with Sky Arts. The channel is making a series of short films following 10 of the Lumiere artists and a 30-minute documentary of the whole event to air on Sky Arts 2 HD and Sky Arts 2 on December 13 at 9.30am.

The festival is also supported by Arts Council England, Durham County Council, culture10 and a host of other partners to bolster Durham’s campaign to be UK City of Culture in 2013.

Last year’s Enlightenment festival attracted 30,000 visitors to Durham. Lumiere looks set to surpass that total.

Free Lumiere guides and torches will be available at Tesco Metro, Durham Market Place, from tomorrow, 4-7pm, or from Clayport library during opening hours.

:: For a full list of Lumiere events, including dates, times and locations, visit www.lumieredurham.co.uk

Visitors are urged to use public transport or the park-and-ride service.