Lyon ‘Festival of lights’

The Italian Cultural Institute of Lyon participates for the first time in the ‘Festival of Lights’, the event that, from December 8 to 11, illuminates the city of Lyon with over 70 installations created by some of the most famous light artists in the world, with two projects: ‘Do humans need humans’ and ‘Drop’.

‘Do humans need humans’ is part of ‘Farnesina Digital Art Experience’, an international project promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Bright Festival and involves three studios: Pixel Shapes, OOOPStudio, Kanaka Studio. The video installations will be projected on the facade of the Temple du Change.

• ‘The Human Big Data’ curated by Pixel Shapes.

Artists: Giovanni Mezzasalma, Simone Scarpello, Andrea Campo and Andrea Criscione.

The projected futuristic images recall the Big Data, the enormous mass of data analyzed through artificial intelligence, an important turning point for scientific and technological progress. The work questions the well-being and development that Big Data and artificial intelligence can bring to society, but also warns about the risks of social and cultural drifts that they could cause.

• ‘Dependence’ curated by Kanaka Studio.

Artist: Andrea Maioli.

This work denounces the strong dependence that mankind has developed towards the technology of the digital era, which has become a purpose and no longer a way to improve society. Therefore, they remind that, unconsciously, humanity will always have a need for affection and physical contact with others.

• ‘Belonging [of Shadows]’ curated by OOOPStudio.

Artists: Alessandro Grisendi and Marco Noviello.

The work represents a need for evolution and a point of arrival for the new generations, which will expand the possibilities of community life, going beyond stereotypes. People belong to the human root, which lives and perpetuates itself thanks to the relationship with others. The digital era makes it possible to break down borders, to find each other, to smooth out inequalities. It is a humanity in perpetual motion that takes shape on the screen, represented by eyes, hands and mouths of people of various identities, by works of art that perpetuate individuals, bodies that remain with the passage of time.

The courtyard of the Musée Gadagne will instead host ‘Drop’, the luminous hexagonal structure in the shape of a drop of water by the artistic team Antica Proietteria. By playing, through a web application (available with a QR code), with the lights, sounds and colors of this installation, it will be possible to modify its environment. This interactive work was created to draw attention to the issue of global warming and the water cycle, showing in a metaphorical way the impact of every human action on the environment.

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