Some forty proposals by thirteen national and international artists, as well as a selection of students from the city’s schools of architecture and design, will be presenting these days unusual and ephemeral artistic creations whose primary material is light itself. Among the issues they address are the relationship we have with our surroundings, the protection of the environment and the changes introduced into our lives by new technologies. Open your eyes wide as Llum BCN 2024 begins.

has been the case in recent years, in the neighbourhood of Poblenou, with a special stop in the area of Les Glòries, where there are many facilities offering interesting proposals. The festival is under the artistic direction of Maria Güell Ordis and has Juliette Bibasse as guest international curator. This year’s image is the work of Menorcan artist Àlex Gifreu. In the poster that you can see in the image, he proposes a game of light effects based on chromatic contrasts, gradations of colours and outlines of letters, elements with which he turns into a graphic representation of light.

Get ready to take part in a collective experiment in perception that proposes to look at the city, but also to explore and inhabit it in a different way. And also sustainable, as everyone is invited to use public transport to visit a series of proposals that, in general, are structured along the route of the T4 tram line.

You can therefore take the tram and come and see works such as Range in between, by Jou Serra, installed at the Auditori’s lantern, which talks about binarism and gender identity; Canopée, with which Antoni Arola provides a complete sensorial experience in the lobby of the TNC; BioDivHub, by TAKK, which, at the Mercat dels Encants, invites us to the coexistence between flora and fauna; Patterns and Recognitions, at the DHUB, where UVA will make us listen to the music (and see the light! ) of the spheres; and BEING GIANTS, ephemeral scenes of the visitors themselves, which will be on display on the façade of the DHUB and are the work of Caroline Robert & Vincent Morisset.

From Poblenou to Mars

Come to the Mirador de la Torre Glòries, on the other hand, and you will find the building converted, thanks to the work and grace of Elisa Storelli, author of Mira el SOL, into the gnomon (the stick of a sundial) of a sun rising… over the surface of the planet Mars. Or better still, contemplate the giant hands of Nathalie Mauphroy at Behind the walls; visit the playground created by Gijs Coenen at Rocking Modules, which you can see at the Museu Can Framis; see an exhibition of Parker Heyl‘s kinetic art at Jacob’s Wall (UPF’s Plaça de Gutemberg building); or explore non-human ways of measuring time at the Parc del Centre del Poblenou with Anna Ridler and her work Circadian nocturne.

If you pass through the Parc del Poblenou, you’ll find flying machines that produce sound and project shadows above your heads. This is Parallel Strata, a proposal by Joris Strijbos & Nicky Assmann that is linked to Mover el viento, the installation with which Sofía Montenegro makes visible at l’Hangar. … all that is not seen, and Lux Domus, an architecture of light created by Josep Poblet that can be seen at the MUHBA Oliva Artés.

Remember that, alongside these proposals, you will find others created by students from Barcelona’s schools and training centres ETSAB, Escola Massana, ESDAP del Campus Deià i Campus Llotja, UPC CCCB, ESDi, Elisava, IED Barcelona, IAAC, LCI, Institut del Teatre, Etsals La Salle, BAU, UPC Master Lighting and Universitat Internacional de Catalunya.

Llum BCN is organised by the Institut de Cultura de l’Ajuntament de Barcelona, but has the main sponsorship of Yamaha, the official sponsorship of the ISE technology fair, the Westfield Glòries Shopping Centre and the Mirador Torre Glòries, and the collaboration of BCN Energia. This is why, in addition to the proposals of the festival, there are four more installations carried out within the context of this sponsorship: at Plaça de Santiago Pey (where the Yamaha Light Meeting Point is located), you can see Electric Routes, a play with heights and the surroundings of the raised esplanade of DHUB; at DHUB itself you can see Espill, TAKK’s artificial star; at the Westfield Glòries Shopping Centre you can see how Alba G. Corral reinterprets the origins of cinema in Zoòtrop Roig, la roda de la llum; and, finally, at Casa Batlló you can see the new wall of the building in the form of a map, Structures of Being, created by Sofia Crespo.

On Saturday, 3 February, lighting art professionals will be attending the Llum Pro conference at the DHUB auditorium, with the participation of commissioners from different European lighting festivals. And last but not least, you’ll also find a number of works from the festival’s Off Llum section distributed around the city on these days.

If you want to enjoy Llum BCN 2024 intensely, take the T4 tram and travel through Poblenou and Les Glòries, but first check the list of proposals for this edition on the festival’s website.