Festival of Light and shadow 2017

The light and shadow festival in Banská Bystrica in 2017 marked the striking and growing interest of the broad and professional public about contemporary multi-gen art. The mass scene backdrop surpassed the organizers’ expectations several times despite the cold and unfavorable weather. The festival was attended by young artists and secondary students (Central School of S. Mikovina B.Štiavnica) and high art schools (Academy of Arts BB, VŠMU Bratislava) from the fields of digital art, new media art, performance art, video art and photography. The space was given to contemporary dance, music composers and producers, stage designers, choreographers and light designers. The theme of the festival’s program was a reflection of global social phenomena such as ecological behavior, sport and lifestyle, space and man. The Festival of Light 2017 prepared a public presentation of both static and dynamic light art, giving a new dimension to the urban architecture of historic and modern buildings as the only light festival in the Slovak Republic to present young visual artists from Slovakia, and Ukraine.

The festival in Banská Bystrica is an artistic project that approaches the general public of contemporary art forms as well as untraditional, unrecognized and significant localities in the city. The festival expanded buildings in the central city area: at the Štefan Moyzes Nautical Museum, the castle walls and the Barbican, the SNP Square, the Tatra banka, the passage to the Slovak Forest, the engine room of the fountain. Both the artists and the public have once again attracted popular facade factions such as the Museum of SNP and Europa SC. Spaces at Barbakane, CNK Garden, Chaviva Reik Garden, Radnice Square, Lazov Street, Theater Theater, Theater Theaters. Dance shows based on the principle of working with a visual light object applied directly to the actor and dancer. The festival presented a complete retrospective of the performance of the unique Banská Bystrica Theater from the passage displayed on the facade of the theater building.

In its third year, the Festival of Light and Shadow presented 23 visual art projects and 7 accompanying events. The streets attracted only 5,000 spectators at the opening of the festival on September 22 at 19:30. As a result, more people were added to the program until 23:00. Saturday, September 23, went in the same scenario. Altogether, light artworks of the 3rd year of the festival attracted more than 25,000 inhabitants and visitors to the city.

The main program of the festival presented:

• 5 videomapping as outputs from site-specific projects by domestic and foreign artists expressing current topics such as Banská Bystrica European City of Sport 2017, Ecological Behavior, Universe and Man
• 7 static light objects,
• 3 moving visualizations used before and during the festival as a invitation,
• 3 interactive lighting installations in the interiors and facades of buildings,
• 5 shows of contemporary dance connected with new media at various localities of the city.

The organizers included the accompanying events of the festival:

• an exhibition of photographs of members of the Union of Blind and Visually Impaired Slovakia under the title The Way of Light,
• workshop luminography,
• workshop led technologies and fiber optic, organized by LEDeco solution,
• observation of the night sky with viewers of the Municipal Observatory and Planetarium J. M. Hella,
• light drink in selected restaurants,
• cars with the logo The European City of Sports in a Jet of Changing Light,
• Searching for a beater, a mascot of the festival,
• and the joint opening of the Festival of Light and the European Week of Sport by the Mayor of the City, the Ambassadors and the Mascot of the Festival.

The two-day festival supported the development of tourism in the city, as well as hundreds of foreign visitors in the streets of the city. A new feature of this year’s festival was the involvement of selected restaurants and cafes, which ensured the promotion of the festival with its offer called Light Lamp, on the one hand, and higher revenues for the operations themselves. The city of Banská Bystrica contributed to the festival in addition to the financial amount in the field of promotion and creation of conditions for transport logistics and protection of works of art.

Organizers of the 3rd year were the “Cultural Slovakia”, TRAKT and Banská Bystrica. Co-organizers – SNP Museum, LEDECo s.r.o., Cover Energy Via MRG s.r.o., PR and Communications Agency Essence Communications, Creative Association, Miobit.

The Festival from public funds was supported by the Arts Support Fund, financially supported by the Banskobystrický samosprávny kraj and the town of Banská Bystrica. The festival of contemporary visual arts could not be organized only from public sources. The private companies have contributed greatly to its progress as well as to supporting young artists. Thanks to Europa SC a.s., Stredoslovenská vodárenská provozní společnost, a.s., Slovmas, s.r.o., Lunter and Regional Tourism Organization of Central Slovakia. In today’s difficult times, support for creative young artists is a unique achievement.

The festival has its website www.svetlo-tien.sk and Facebook Festival of Light and Shadow. The Facebook page has been updated with the current information from the festival throughout the period since the first year. The site directly addressed 40,520 people in 2017. Promotion, dissemination of information about the festival’s program and news from the event were provided by RTVS – Slovak Radio, TV News at STV1, Ahoj Slovakia at STV2, Radio Regina, national radio broadcast weekend, Internet TV CiTy BB. Advertisements and invitations to the festival were published in Radničné noviny, Priekopník, Kam v meste, SME, MY Banskobystrické noviny, Our news, in the independent week of KOMENT and in the internet newspaper Bystricoviny.sk, BBonline.sk, Teraz.sk, našaBystrica.sk. The event is also presented on its website by Banská Bystrica and co-organizers. In the region, we have exhibited ideological and program posters, billboards and citylights. The propagation of the festival via A2 posters and A5 leaflets allowed us the shopping center Europa SC, the City Information Center and the SNP Square. A brief information video with an invitation to the festival was hosted by spol. Bus Media to public transport buses. You can find the video from the festival at LINK, photo documentation www.svetlo-tien.sk

Efficiency and benefits of the festival is the organizer of originality as well as a presentation of visual art works of new generation of artists, he offered education of children and young people through interactive art technology. Our ambition is to prepare a more attractive and colorful festival of modern art in 2018.