Reflecting on Turin

Back from Turin, where I was invited to keynote the LUCI Association Bringing Life to Public Spaces with Light Art international conference to mark the end of its Light Art in Public Spaces EU-funded project.

It weas a great two days of talk that was creative as much as it was technical, political and environmental. Much of what we spoke about was about the social impact of lighting festivals and installations, and the messaging they can portray to a place’s identity and what it is concerned about. It was a critical conversation too and the programme gave space for some deep questioning and reflection.

I came away so impressed by the LUCI group too – a really dedicated, professional and creative team, and a cohort of people of such wide skills and purviews, all together, what the ingredients one needs for sector leadership.

The two days included tours of the many Turin light installations, and a huge thank you to the City of Turin team and its guides for such informative tours; and the conference day included time with light artist, Titia Ex, Professor Andrea Bocco, Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning at the Politecnico di Torino, Éric Lefebvre, General Director of Quartier des Spectacles Partnership in Montreal, and Dr Anna Pellegrino, Department of Energy at the Politecnico di Torino.

Light & Art in Public Spaces (LAiPS) is an EU project working to strengthen city capacities for permanent light art installations in public spaces, doing this by fostering transnational cooperation among cities, exchanging best practices, and making use of innovative digital tools. Led by LUCI, this 3-year project was funded by the Creative Europe programme includes the cities of Lyon, Oulu and Turin.