Auvicom presents a range of art installations at the Ghent Light Festival

The highly successful 5th edition of the Ghent Light Festival has just come to an end. During the Light Festival, the city was lit up artistically at various locations in every imaginable and even unthinkable way. The spotlights shone on 36 very special illuminated artworks over the five days of the Festival. And this year, Auvicom had the honour and pleasure of ensuring that the installations of at least 9 of the artists could be staged successfully.

While visitors only see the end result of these illuminated artworks, we as video specialists take a completely different look at how the installation is staged. We look at the best way of achieving the desired effect from a technical point of view and we also seek to ensure that it has the best possible impact on its audience.

No fewer than 10 Auvicom employees were responsible for constructing all of the installations – and they did so in just 3 days. Another 3 days were then needed, working with the artists to make the final tweaks and fine-tune the final presentations. During the festival, there were 3 people from Auvicom on hand every day (and night!) to provide support and switch on all of the light installations.

We have selected a number of works for you below that we’d really like to highlight (yeah!). 

With the video installation Humanescence, artist brings human portraits to life by means of micro movements. The tableaux vivants illustrate the liquidity of time, an impressive example of futuristic nostalgia!

Behind the scenes: 13 rear-projection setups at 7 different locations for 7 local traders. As the name suggests, with rear-projection, the image is projected on to the display surface from behind. Which means that visitors can come as close to the image as they like without getting in the way of the projection beam. This installation involved projecting images on to vinyl that was glued to the display windows of the merchants. The projections were synchronised so that action at one location flowed on smoothly to the next.

This interactive installation projects a waterfall next to a real stream of water. The artist challenges you to become part of the work, enhancing the illusion of being in front of a real waterfall.

Behind the scenes: A waterfall installation in the square was filmed and the silhouettes and interactions of the visitors were projected with the water on to a projection surface of 16 m x 25 m on an apartment building at a height of 35 metres. It was a genuine tour de force in view of the distance, height and position of the apartment building. A Barco UDX-WQ40 laser projector was used with 40,000 ANSI lumen in 4K resolution.

This work represents an alternative approach to the diversity that is present in Ghent. The eye is naked and hardly susceptible to prejudice. Who is the refugee? Who is the doctor? Who is the immigrant and who is the politician?

Behind the scenes: Here we projected moving eyes from 2 containers on to 9 spheres hanging between the trees. Because of the different distances between the spheres, it was quite a challenge to get a perfectly sharp image on each sphere. Mission accomplished!

What do Ghentians look like in 2021? In Coyendanspark, life-size portraits of Ghent citizens are projected on trees, with all their similarities and differences. 

Behind the scenes: A gallery of faces projected on to a gallery of hedges and shrubs. For this, we used ultra short throw projectors, each with 1 projector and 1 computer per shrub. These projectors make it possible to project over short distances. Once again, the challenge was to get a nice sharp image on the foliage.

Supraluminique is a cosmic ballet you can literally move through. It’s a performance by immortal dust particles and their endless dance through space. Enter the tunnel of time and travel ten times faster than light.

Behind the scenes: Last, but not least comes our real show pony. From a tower of 3 stacked containers, we used no less than 40,000 ANSI lumens, double-stacked up to 80,000 ANSI lumens projected to show an animation on to a building with a display area of 30 m x 12 m. The building had a passageway that was transformed into a tunnel through which visitors could experience time travel. The distance to the projection surface was also relatively short, which is why we again used short throw projectors here.

Do you want more information on how Auvicom handles these projects? Do not hesitate to contact us.

Did you know that … all of Auvicom’s installations at the Light Festival were approved without a single comment by the Fire Brigade and other safety bodies. Safety first is part of the quality service we provide!