Amsterdam Light Festival is already at its 5th edition.
So far I was never able to visit the event, but this year I made it!
It’s beautiful; don’t miss it!
What is Amsterdam Light Festival
It is an annual light art festival in Amsterdam.
Artists, designers and architects from all over the world bring their light art and installations to life during the festival every winter.
The city and the canals are a beautiful backdrop for the light art. Nexus by Victor Vicsek. Nexus means ‘connection’. The artist finds Amsterdams international character and its many ‘colors’ the most typical characteristic of the city.
The art works are placed along two routes: Water Colors, a canal-cruise (so by boat), shows large, monumental works along or on the canals, while Illuminade, the walking route in the Plantage neighborhood, shows innovative and interactive light art.
Amsterdam Light Festival 2016/2017 edition
This edition, the theme of Water Colors is: A view on Amsterdam. The city serves as a canvas for the light art, while the art reflects upon or highlights characteristics of Amsterdam.
What a beautiful sight!
Illuminade’s theme this year is: Biomimicry. This is the science where in the logic and structures of nature are used to solve human problems.
See the Light Art by foot, bike or boat
As said, you can choose to see the art by different ways of transport. Each means of transport has it’s own advantages, disadvantages, viewpoints and characteristics.
People enjoying the Light Art by foot. This specific work is called Rhizome House by DP architects from Singapore. This art work shows us underground plant roots above ground, for a change.
By foot or bike
Walking or biking the Illuminade tour is only possible until this sunday, january 8th.
I have planned my own walk sunday evening, so just in time.
After sunday you can of course still walk or bike the Water Colors route, just not the Illuminade.
By boat
Water Colors, the boat tour, is offered by a lot of operators in different type of boats.
Click here for an overview of all cruise-operators with links to their websites. The list includes also tours by bike!
Talking about bikes: this light art refers to Amsterdam’s many, many bikes. Specifically to the 15.000 (!!!) bikes that are fished out of the Amsterdam canals every year. If they would not be fished out, boats could not even go through the canals, since the waters would be meters less deep. Unbelievable, isn’t it?!
In case you have no idea about the number of bikes we have in Holland, check out this huge bike-parking at Amsterdam’s Central Station.
The Water Colors Cruises are available until januari 22nd.
Semi-Open Boat Tour by Lovers
One of Amsterdam’s biggest and most well-known canal-tour operator is Lovers.
They offer Water Colors cruises in their common, closed canal boats.
Advantage: it’s warm on board.
Disadvantages:
1. you have to take pictures through the glass of the windows and
2. if it rains, condensation can occur on the windows, blocking your view.
Lovers also offers the Water Colors Tour in a semi-open boat.
Lovers semi-open boat cruises leave from a small dock in front of Amsterdam’s beautiful Central Station.
Then the top/roof is closed (glass), so that rain does not bother you, but the sides of the boat are open.
The windows at eye-height have no glass in them.
Advantages:
1. you are not taking pictures through glass,
2. no condensation-problems,
3. you can lean a bit overboard or stick out your camera-hand/arm if that comes in handy for taking certain pictures.
Disadvantage: it’s cold!
Our experience
When we took our tour it was sooooooo frikkin’ cold!
Fortunately blankets are handed out, so you can wrap yourself up entirely, as I did. I think I used three blankets even.
People wrapped in blankets during the boat tour.
I was still freezing, because my feet were ice-cold and because I had one hand above the blanket all the time, holding my camera, taking pictures.
Frits and I, bundling up to stay warm. The red cables are from the headsets that everyone receives.
You receive a headset, can choose your own language and listen to an audio-guide telling you about Amsterdam, about what you see along the way and of course about all the specific light art works that you sail past.
The tour lasts 75 minutes and costs 21,50 euros per person.
Photo-impression of Amsterdam Light Festival by boat
Wolfert’s dog by Tatiana Titova.
Anna Morphe by Isabel Nielen
ARCO by Teresa Mar
Blueprint by Reier Pos.
Painting the blueprint of the Scheepvaartmuseum on the building itself with lasers. Fascinating sight!
Together by Luigi Console & Valentina Novembre. A work about Love being contagious, expressed with words in several languages.
Nest by Vikas Patil & Santos Guhjar. An art work, referring to Organic Architecture. Architecture in which nature -in this case the way birds build nests- is taken as inspiration for building(s) for humans.
Many installations of Amsterdam Light Festival change colors, adding to the experience and to the beauty of the art.
Rotifers by Nicole Anona Banowetz. On the building and in front of it, we see several rotifers, known for leaving parts of their DNA behind when they die. A work about the circle of life.
Again: changing colors.
This work is one of my favorites, but I did not succeed to capture it’s beauty on camera. The circumstances for photography are quite difficult. Big contrast between the dark environment and the light installations. Being on a moving boat complicates things even more.
Another one of my favorites of Amsterdam Light Festival 2016/2017. From Twente with Love by Randy van Lingen & DesignLab UTwente.
Welcome to my home(town) by Lighting Design Academy. Optical illusion: what appear to be 3D light-houses are in fact 2D light objects.
A window in Time by Motion Paintings. A moving painting of light, using pictures from the archives of the city.
A better look at this work.
Changing colors.
Bridge of the rainbow by Gilbert Moity. Light art inspired by Amsterdams reputation of Gay City.
The Lace by Choi + Shine Architects. Nine persons wove 33.000 meters of light reflective thread into this enormous art work, weighing 650 kg. The effect is breathtaking! With references to the famous, traditional Dutch lace headwear and to the inter-weavings between people in Amsterdam.
It felt like you could almost grab the lace art, while sailing underneath it.
I love Amsterdam and it’s canals
And despite the cold, I have to say that sailing through Amsterdam’s canals is always beautiful. In the evenings, with all the lights at bridges and such, it’s nothing less than a fairytale picture, one a after the other.
More about sailing the canals in Amsterdam another time.
Have you seen Amsterdam Light Festival this year? Which art works are your favorites? Do you have light festivals near where you live? Have you ever sailed through the canals of Amsterdam?
This looks lovely! Seeing the canals lit up at night looks magical.
bisous
Suzanne
Oh, yeah, I think so too. Amsterdam has lots of big-city-problems, but seeing the lit up canals like this makes you fall in love with the city easily.