Geneva Lux Festival brings sparkle to Christmas nights

WHEN it comes to celebrating the season of lights in style, the City of Geneva doesn’t let any other city outshine its sparkle. This year for the Geneva Lux Festival 2018 it’s increasing the number of inspiring electical installations to an impressive 25, six more than last year.

Of course, all of the previous installations were a delight to behold as well as a credit to the diversity of European artists who participated. I never imagined that Christmas lights could be so varied and imaginative but every year this festival of lights inspires me with how these talented creators can think outside the traditional Christmas box.

New installations for 2018 will include:

• • • “lightship” by Alexandre Burdin-François and Boris Edelstein, which will transform the CGN paddlesteamer Vevey into a 360-degree moving canvas of geometric patterns;
    • “Les Eaux Vives”: fish-shaped wind vanes with beribboned tails will softly illuninate the street of the same name; and
    • “Jeux typographiques pour recueil de poèmes” by the Swiss collective Encor Studio will see contemporary images projected onto the Hôtel des Bergues to celebrate the meticulous typefaces created by famous Swiss foundries, past and present.
    • HEAD LUX is an aesthetic and graphic offering that plays with the Temple de la Madeleine. Using the mapping technique, the graduates and undergraduates of the HEAD – Geneva Visual Communication Department, deliver a visual and narrative experience that’s somewhere between dream and fascination.
    • Harmonic Portal by Chris Plan is a slowly evolving, hypnotic meditation on colour harmony.
    • Spark Ballet by Pitaya is an immersive installation representing the energy present in every living being, usually invisible to the naked eye. Like auras in motion, particles fly around the trees in attractive curves, creating a hypnotic ballet of lights.

  

  This year for the first time you can enjoy a two-hour Geneva Lux Festival Tour on Saturday 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29 December 2018 and Saturday 5 January 2019. The departure point is the Tourist Office, Rue du Mont-Blanc 18, at 5 p.m. The price is CHF15, CHF10 for AVS/students, and for children under 11 the tour is free.

  Take a moment to enjoy this video of the 2017 Geneva Lux Festival and remember to look up this year and be inspired by the magical installations in the 2018 Festival. ♣

  Geneva Lux Festival 2018
  30 November 2018 to 13 January 2019
  geneva-lux.deus@ville-ge.ch
  Tél.+41 (0)22 418 24 70
  Fax+41 (0)22 418 24 71