The Boulevard Of Light – Amsterdam Light Festival

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9/12/2012

Man, it’s so good to get back into the warmth, with a steaming hot cup of tea, or whatever your tipple is for regaining the feeling in your hands! I’ve just come back home, after fighting with the elements, to try and get to see some of the light sculptures in The Boulevard of Light. I wrote an article about The Amsterdam Light Festival, which is on at the moment and after doing the research on it, I wanted to see the light sculptures with my own eyes. So I decided to be brave and venture out this evening to see them.

The Boulevard of Light is one the four main activities which forms the core of the festival. All the buildings of the cultural institutions between the Munt and the Amstel Hotel and the bridges, will be illuminated during the six weeks of the festival. One of the light sculptures that fascinated me is Janet Echelman’s ‘Fishing Net’ which is suspended in mid air over the Amstel river just opposite the city hall. The immense size of it and its multicoloured form caught my attention. I was hoping that it would be as good, if not better in real life.

It’s called ‘1.26 Amsterdam’ and is a reference to the earthquake in Chile in February 2010 which apparently caused the day to be shortened by 1.26 milliseconds. Its fishing net shape has a moving and fluid form that responds to environmental forces such as wind, water and sunlight. Another unusual feature to it, is that fact that it’s suspended in mid air above the river. All of the other light sculptures are mostly ground based, so this gives a new form to the urban airspace of Amsterdam.

This was the first of the light sculptures that I went to see. I saw it first from the Rembrandtsplein side of the river. It was impressive but when I walked over the bridge and saw it from outside the city hall, there was definitely a better view of it, without the glare of lights getting in the way. It was such a windy night, it seemed daft to be out in this weather unless you had a place to go but actually it was the best time to see this sculpture, as it showed off the fluidity of its movement. With the wind blowing a gale, the fishing net changed its shape and form and danced in the air. The changing light patterns of the lamps illuminating it highlighted its movements and brought out the mostly blue, pink and red shades even more. I love it and is my favourite so far. And yes, it’s even better in reality than in the photos.

There are quite a few buildings and bridges that are lit up along the Boulevard of Light. The second one I saw was the Ovo, which is a seven metre high construction in the shape of an egg. It’s on the water just outside The Hermitage museum. This light sculpture was made by Koert Vermeulen, Marcos Viñals Bassols, Pol Marchandise and Mostafa Hadi. It changes colours regularly and the sprays of mist that come off it make it look like an object from outer space!  Music floats in the air and the sound reminded me of creaking timbers. I liked this sculpture too but while I was there, the weather turned even more wintry and the hailstones hopped off the wooden deck I was standing on. The wind would freeze the balls off a brass monkey and I’m glad I wasn’t in the security people’s shoes, who were stationed there from 4.30pm to 10pm. I’m sure they’d probably turn into ice blocks come 10 o’clock.

The Carré Theatre was also lit up, along with the Amstel Hotel but I didn’t think the lighting was all that special. The Hogesluisbrug has a light projection on it with the crosses from the coat of arms of Amsterdam, which warns against flooding, fire and the plague. This was made by Mary-Anne Kyriakou and Ingo Bracke. But the crosses on the bridge aren’t very obvious. The Doelen Hotel and the University theatre are also on the list of illuminated buildings in the Boulevard of Light but to me, didn’t look any different than normal. The only other thing that I did like was the Kinder Lampenkappen Bos. 500 children from elementary schools in Amsterdam were part of a project to paint their own lampshades, which would be lit up with led lights in artificial trees in Waterlooplein. There are about ten of these artificial trees along both sides of the market. The Munt tower also has nine illuminated angels on it.

I didn’t get to see the Heineken Experience Bottle Light Wall which sounds very interesting. I’ll write about that after I’ve seen it. I also intend to do the Illuminade walking route around the city’s inner canals, the Christmas Canal Parade and maybe take one of the boat trips which is being run especially for the Festival of Light. The perspective is always different from the water. So keep checking back to see my adventures during the Amsterdam Light Festival.