Before starting the adventure of the second night of the
festival, I had a chance to participate one of the most ancient ceremonies of
Lyonais, lighting candles to thank Mary.
(Click here to read the Ep.I)
You can use normal white votive candles or so-called prayer
candles that you can find in a church. It’s better to put the candles in small
containers if you don’t want to clean your window the day after. The containers
can be small transparent cups or glasses in your kitchen or you can buy some
containers that are created especially for this festival in a supermarket in
your neighborhood.
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| Glasses for candles sold in a supermarket |
We put a candle in each small glass with some water inside;
this would help to get rid of the melt wax way easier. There is no compulsion
in numbers of candles, one is even fine. Once the sun set, 28 candles were lit
in our two windows - the more, the merrier! According to what I observed, I
would rather call this activity “candle decoration” since we didn’t pray or do
anything apart from putting lit candles in the windows. Across the street, some
neighbors started doing the same thing. Having been told that the 8th
December was the most beautiful night of the festival since there would be candle
lights in every window, I was upset about what I saw. There were not many, actually very few
households lit the candles in the window at that time. I consoled myself,
hoping that I would see more candle lights when going out.
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| Putting lit candles on our balcony |
It was a rainy day. Under the umbrella, my companions and I
walked to Place Louis Pradel where were situated, groups of huge lamps “Les
Lustres”. The luminous chandeliers changed their colour from red to green, from
green to blue, from blue to purple, well…that’s lovely... We passed the
security control gate where the crowd met, continued our walk before we bumped
into a gigantic pinball machine in Place du Griffon. “Faite vos jeux” or was
lying on its side like someone just had a fight and accidentally knocked the
machine down. There’s a sound of a metal ball hitting inside the machine and
the blinking lights from different spots like a real game. If it was an interactive installation, it
would be more interesting. Thinking this twice, maybe that’s the reason why there
were very few audiences around the area.
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| "Les Lustres" at Place Louis Pradel |
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| "Les Lustres" from another point of view |
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| "Faite vos jeux" |
Not far from the square, a lighting sign shew the name of a
work and the way down to see its show. Loud music was playing in Cours des
Moirages. The crowd was surrounding a work named “Order200”. A few seconds
after I had stood on my tiptoes to have a clearer view, the presentation ended.
So I waited for a new session of the show, in the front row for this time. 200
light bulbs (I guess this from the name of the work) were flickering and
changing colours along the music
[video]. I must confess that this installation
gave me a little headache. I felt like I was watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, an
epic movie for many people, but not me… (Sorry guys!) This installation might
need an interpretation and I didn’t have enough capability to do so. Anyway, I gave
myself a pat on the back for finishing the show without throwing up before (or
after).
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| "Order200" |
After the landing on the earth, we walked through and along
the crowd until we arrived at Place des Terreaux. The projection mapping “
Une toute
petite histoire de lumière”
(A tiny story of light) has just begun
its show
[video]. Hundreds of stars were blinking and shining on the facades of
the city hall and the Musée des Beaux-Arts museum which were being projected
with intense blue light, pretending they were a night sky. We were enchanted by
the background music
that brought us into a dream, a fantasy world.
[video] It’s
a pity that what I concerned at that moment was taking photos and videos to
show you, so I didn’t pay attention about the story nor the message that the
artists wanted to tell us. So, I make a promise to myself that I won’t act like
this again. 😭 However, the installation was fascinating and got easily 10/10
from me for both the esthetics and the presentation.
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| “Une toute petite histoire de lumière” in front of the city hall |
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| “Une toute petite histoire de lumière” mapping projecting on two facades at Place des Terreaux |
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| Stunning image of Lyonais symbols on the facade of the city hall |
Escaping a crowd from the square to run into another, the
façade of Saint-Paul Train Station was projecting moving pictures of an
astronaut in a seem-like abstract space under the name of “Daydreams”.
Since we were watching it from far side, behind a sea of crowd, we didn’t
understand much the story. Started to be tired of mapping works (and crowd!),
we then continued our walk to find a calmer area.
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| “Daydreams” at Saint-Paul Train Station |
On the Quai de Bondy road, we followed the sign, entered the
Palais Bondy building. “Les Fabuloscopes” was being present in forms of
interactive works. Three pieces of the installation work were standing in the
middle of the hall; an audience spun the disk which is the base of the work. This
installation shares the same technique that was used in film making industry
before the arriving of digital age. The pyramid-shape work was spinning rapidly
around itself, creating a moving image of
Gignols, one of Lyonais famous icons, showing
heart signs to public.
[video] Too bad, it was the only one installation that
was “interactivable” when we had a visit. The other two were standing deadly
with signs “out of order”, waiting for reparation by the crew. I wondered if
it’s the reason why they don’t do much interactive works, especially in a free
exhibition like this.
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| One of “Les Fabuloscopes” |
In the old city area, the line in front of Gadagne museum
was even way longer than the first day I walked pass. We wouldn’t have any
chance to see “Nocturne” that was claimed by a friend that its presentation was
awesome. Passing through the long queue, we headed up to Chemin Neuf Uphill which
allowed us to see “Genesis” better and clearer. It was fascinating to see the
cathedral projected by different shades of light from this distance. Next to Saint-Jean-Baptise
Cathedral, tons of candles were being lighted up in the windows which enhanced
the beauty to the atmosphere.
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| “Genesis” from a higher perspective |
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| “Genesis” along with candle lights in the below old town |
Going up a little bit higher, we stopped and took a small
break at Communautaire Garden. Lyon at night was decorated by colourful lights.
The luminous hues from the buildings, the Ferris wheel, the windows and those
installations animated the city more than any day
in a year.
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| Lyon by night from an uphill view |
With a little more effort against the force of gravity, we
reached André Malraux Garden where piles of works were presented as “Expérimentations
étudiantes”. The peaceful garden was transformed into an active stage showing
different interesting luminous works of students: bee hives, life vests,
badminton shuttles, small mapping and many more. It’s too bad that I didn’t
write down the names of each work since we were in a hurry to see other
installations.
Running down to the Saône River, we luckily bumped into “Colosses”,
one of the installations that I wanted to see. Two colossal figurines were
standing in the river, leaning against Pont Bonaparte Bridge. The shining manikins
changed their colours from time to time, from red to blue, from blue to purple…
purple to green... Once a boat came closer the bridge, it looked really like
these two giant men were making a way for the boat to pass through.
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| “Colosses” at Pont Bonaparte |
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| “Colosses” with a night cruise ship |
Heading to the direction where the Rhône River is situated,
a huge installation called “Pavillon” was installed in the middle of Place
Antonin Poncet. The white radiant pavilion turned volume of the brightness up
all over the area. It made us feel safer to walk through here, like we have
never felt before.
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| “Pavillon” at Place
Antonin Poncet |
It was almost 11 p.m. Tiring enough from a long walk and the
crowd, we so decided to head back home. In the quietness, outside the
exhibition area, some windows still had the shining candles in. At the
intersection, blue, white, red lights were projected on the Rhône County
Council building. It was the most beautiful flag that I’ve ever seen. A
luminous tricolour flag was shining still. It didn’t move even a bit despite
of the wind. I smiled and mumbled “After all of the installations I’ve seen
tonight, this is a great finale.”
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| Rhône County
Council at night during the Festival of Lights |
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