BRIXEN WATER LIGHT FESTIVAL ON PEACE AND ENVIRONMENT

STORY 

The only light festival in the Alps is the Brixen Water Light Festival, shows 47 big light installations about the environment and peace in the South Tyrol region in northern Italy.

Brixen is located where two rivers with meet Eisack and Rienz
Bright lights have been set up in the Brixen Cathedral, where monks gave christian shelter crossing the Alps via the Branner pass between South Germany and North Italy. The Bishop residence Hofburg has permitted to set up the french artist group Collectif Scale spectacular light installation Flux, that moves interactively with peoples movement in the courtyard.

In the Bishops private garden “Herrengarten ” has smoke and a huge laser artwork has been set up by Dutch light artist Edwin Van Der Heide. The light changes perception of the historic garden, which now is open to the public.

Where the two rivers meet has mysterious lights set up by Danish artist Mads Vegas: “The work is called “Misty Mystery”. So it’s about the aerial mystery, things happening in the sky that we don’t really know what is” explain the viking looking Danish artist Mads Vegas. “So it’s about, you know, the northern lights, and maybe it’s the Gods doing something, the thunder, the lightning, things like that.”. Mads Vegas made it with Italian musicians Anger.

The war in Ukraine has made the visiting international Ukranian artist Julia Shamsheieva, make a work about the beauty that is so fragile. 

She gets very emotional being away from the war and in the peaceful Brixen and needs to express: “To live in another country after Ukraine. It feels like you live in a different world.  It’s without explosions, without every day of these horrors.” explain Ukranian artist Julia Shamsheieva. “It’s like you feel like it’s a horror movie film. And you don’t  truly understand that it’s happening. It’s happening in real life.”

“Endless Rebirth” is her big projection called, that left many standing in a trance. It is about how easy life can be disrupted and we humans irresponsibly violate this harmony of life. “My project is about an endless loop of life that it’s very fragile and we have to be responsible for our nature”, says Julia Shamsheieva.

Not only Julia Shamsheieva, but the Brixen Light Festival´s curator and director want to remind us about global warming and we should respect nature and life’s balance and flow. 

He thinks the most important thing about the Brixen Water Light Festival is that the artist expresses the important subjects.
“The whole world is speaking about sustainability. The whole world is speaking about  global warming.  I think it’s very important that the artists have the voice, that the artist is speaking to” sas Werner Zanotti, Curator And Director Brixen Cultur. “Artists are expressing themselves via light installation. This is what the Water Light Festival wants to send out.”

The melting of the glaciers in the surrounding Dolomite mountains, that is a historic part of the Alps, is very important for the people living in Brixen and all of the South Tyrol region. On the library wall has the German art group Xenorama been commissioned to create “Strata”, that means layers formed over time through natural processes. Each layer of ice can provide information, like the library, that Xenorama tries to create hope for not will be lost:
“Even, even if there are thousands of negative aspects we see right now in our projection, we also have this idea about a positive  aspect,” says Marcel Bückner, Artist and Media Engineer, Xenorama. “Everything that dissolves can grow again. And that’s maybe the one aspect we want to point out  that we can still act and there’s still hope.”

Nature reefs are also represented in an animated underwater reef being filled with human garbage. It is called “Plastic Reef” and it is projected on the old city gate from the 12th century. by Andreas Siefert from Germany.

A colorful tree ”The Great Platanus” is an homage to theimportance of nature for all of us made by the French artists Spectaculaires.

The use of lights and energy on Earth is also the theme for international Italian artist Stefano Cagol, who has been communicating with NASA and ESA astronauts about how the Earth looks from the space-station during the nights.
“The point of view for the astronauts is very important because they really have a vision of the impact that we have on the planet,” says Stefano Cargo.  “All these billions of lights that we are using are beautiful, but also the real view of all the energy we are using – maybe is a bit too much.” says  Stefano Cagol.

The festival focuses their works around the city’s water fountains, celebrating the importance to the Dolomite mountain region. 

23 year old visiting student Katharina Riedl thinks that “it’s really important to bring the message of sustainability through artists and through art to all the people here in South Tyrol, but also.. furthermore than South Tyrol”.

“Liquid Lights” are lights simulating interaction with water. The lightwork by Filip Roca from Spain invites people, as many other works on Brixen Water Light Festival, to immerse themselves in a tranquil atmosphere, enjoying our natural surroundings.

The same can be said about New York artist Christine Sciully, who has made mist, clouds and water out of countless textiles.

You can´t also not help starring in the water of Japanese artist Ken Matsubara´s Moon Bowl.

Small animated films are invisible projected under the water in small ceramic bowls making you stare in fascinated wonder.

This also goes for the projection Tentakulum in the ceiling of the old library for the monks, where the oldest book from 990 was found, which describes the church’s religious practices and beliefs, at that time. The projection shows microscopic animals made by 3 people Groth, Berndt and Seltman.

21 year old visiting Italian Patrick Da Rin feels the light art conveys nature and sustainability in a different way than other forms of media: “News speakers or television series talk about sustainability and environment,  it touches people in one way. And I think art has a totally different  effect on the human mind and also the eye.”

The immersing atmosphere was also expressed by visiting Colombian Camila Meija:
”I love some of the installations, you can immerse yourself with nature or just enjoy the sound and light produced by the different techniques that they use”, says the 24 year old colombian.

The Brixen Water Light Festival continues until May 21, which includes the UN Day of Light on May 16, which marks the first operation of the laser in 1960 by physicist and engineer, Theodore Maiman.

Brixen and the South TyrolThe region was granted autonomy by the Italian government in 1972. The autonomy agreement granted to promote the cultural, linguistic, and ethnic identity of the 64% German-speaking population. The region was conquered by Italy after World War 1 and still belongs to Italy, which calls the peaceful city Bressanone.  

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