A further key objective is to make a sustainable contribution to urban development – in dialogue with artists, creative minds, urban planners, scientists and the city’s residents. Projects revolving around urban visions in the fields of light, architecture, technology, ecology, social interaction in the city, or with its history and culture, make this into a tangible experience – accompanied by interdisciplinary dialogue. In this process, the Luminale sees itself as a source of ideas and impulses, as well as coordinator, communicator and test laboratory.

As Biennial for Light Art and Urban Design, since 2018, the Luminale has pursued the goal of creating a popular and high-quality program in terms of both art and content, as well as making a sustainable contribution to urban design. Thus, the city is not only a stage, but a major component of the festival itself. Projects that contend with urban visions of the future at the interfaces between light, architecture, technology, ecology and social interaction in the city, accompanied by transdisciplinary dialogue on the related issues turn this into a tangible experience. 

The Luminale is presenting its program in five categories: selected positions of thematic light art in CURATED; lectures and talks with renowned experts in TALK; projects from universities and other educational institutions in STUDY; as well as projects that, with unique spirit, deal freely and experimentally with light and city outside the curated area in COMMUNITY.

Finally, the BETTER CITY section is dedicated to all projects that will be permanently preserved in the city and thus contribute to the sustainability of the Luminale.

The heart of the Luminale in the urban space is the Light Walk, which combine interesting places into a walking tour of the city and a public gallery of light art. These locations tell the history of the city, proclaim the visions and desires of its inhabitants, create identity and shape the urban atmosphere. In such dynamically-changing cities as Frankfurt and Offenbach, new places emerge, squares disappear, fall into oblivion or become »un-places«. These witnesses of change, monuments and landmarks, will become venues and themes of light-art projects on the Light Walk.

Why have we chosen this theme? While it is especially light as medium and material (of art and urban design) that unites the paradox inherent in the term „Digital Romantic“.  Thus, the medium of light (perhaps unlike any other) seems an appropriate medium to tackle the issues of interaction and significance of the digital and the Romantic.

In the coming year, when the Deutsche Romantik-Museum in Frankfurt/Main is due to open, the Luminale is also looking for connections between the Romantic era and the current digital revolution. It aspires to show that light art can not only transform surfaces, but also unfold its effective power subcutaneously. By creating unknown places, opening perspectives and revealing layers of meaning that were previously hidden. The Luminale wants to explore whether light can also create places beyond the real world, often perceived as chaotic, demanding and, not rarely, overwhelming. And it also wants to ask, whether we need these places at all? Is digital the solution to conveying and reinterpreting (forgotten) analogue content? Can new images be created in the mind to counter the flood of endlessly incoming content? Does light art rapidly wear off as a staged event, or does it fulfil a yearning for the true, the beautiful, the good?

For further Informations about the thematical Focus, click here: DIGITAL ROMANTIC

Instituto Cervantes © Luminale, Photo: Dieter Schwer

Since 2008, the Spanish cultural center has been situated in the former America House not far from the Alte Oper (Staufenstraße 1, 60323 Frankfurt). With its bright, inviting architecture, for the second time, it offers the ideal setting for lectures and talks in the TALK category, and an invitation to attend and take part in interdisciplinary dialogue and discourse on light, city and the future. In the evening, the festival center acts as a meeting point for all Luminale enthusiasts and the perfect starting point for a stroll along the Light Walk.

In the foyer, the Instituto Cervantes is also presenting the video installation “The Italian” by sculptor and multimedia artist Bernard. Roig. Roig is among the most prestigious representatives of the contemporary Spanish art scene.

Courtesy of Buena Vida, the festival center will be serving drinks and tapas. The equipment for the festival center is kindly provided by Vitra.

In particular, the association seeks to support artists and creative minds in realizing their creative works within the framework of the event. As a neutral platform, the Luminale invites supporters from all walks of life to become part of this project.

Since 1st January 2019, the Luminale e.V. has been a member of the „LUCI Association“ (Lighting Urban Community International), an international network currently comprosed of 70 cities that use light as an instrument of social, cultural and economic development.