LIGHTING GUERRILLA 2021
15th international festival of light
REALITY
24th May−19th June 2021
Ljubljana
Match gallery, Mala gallery BS, various outdoor locations in the city centre
15th Lighting Guerrilla international festival: Resničnost / Reality
This year, for the second time in a row, the Lighting Guerrilla festival is marked by the Covid-19 epidemics and the consequent measures that do not spare cultural life in any way. The reality of the past year is leaving us producers in uncertainty until the last moment – but with a little bit of luck, everything will go according to plan and we will be able to indulge in the pleasures of lighting art on warm spring nights for the fifteenth time in a row.
For the 2021 edition, we are preparing a varied repertoire of lighting installations and interventions, with the central festival exhibitions located in the immediate vicinity of the Vžigalica gallery, and quite a few new venues in the wider city center as well. With the festival, Ljubljana is once again turning into a haven for open-air art: many exhibiting artists, among them a few foreign ones too, have adorned the city streets, squares, parks and river banks with their new works, introducing thus fresh visual content, new stories and new qualities into the fabric of the city. In the design of the program, we cooperated, just as in previous years, with several educational institutions and in this way enabled young artists to realize their ideas. The lion’s share of projects was executed by the Ljubljana’s Academy of Fine Arts and Design whose students have prepared many new productions. We also organized an extensive workshop as part of the Lighting Guerrilla Laboratory where participants were able to create at the intersection of physical and virtual space. The results are on display outdoors during the day too for the very first time.
This year’s projects were inspired by reality, the theme of this year’s festival. The reality that surrounds us carries a multitude of different aspects that people experience very subjectively. The theme of the festival attempts to highlight the deceptiveness and elusiveness of reality as it often depends on our senses and perception, and to emphasize, on the other hand, some key issues that shape the contemporary experience of reality and consequently indicate our future too. The coordinates of reality are formed in the human brain through our senses – they are a controlled construct that is based on our perception which can be manipulated too. The participating artists reacted to the dissection of reality in different ways: among the outstanding thematic emphases there are, for example, themes of ecology and concern for the fate of this planet and of the human race, often revealed in highly dystopian and sometimes even resigned tones. The reality of many people has been strongly marked by the epidemic and socio-political changes that are being introduced under its auspices in the local context by the current government too. The growing authoritarianism of the authorities in conjunction with modern technologies of mass control and the pitfalls of social media is causing discomfort that is quite strongly felt by many contemporary artists. The key question here thus lies in the dilemma: what is real(ity) after all and what’s merely manipulation or propaganda?
Open-air projects are on display all days of the week between 21.30 and 23.30.
Guided tours of the festival take place every Thursday and Saturday at 21.00, the starting point is the Vžigalica gallery.
We are not responsible for any eventual program changes due to force majeure or anythign else; follow the latest information on our website and on our social media.
Festival visitors are kindly asked to adhere to current guidelines and instructions on safety and hygiene measures against Covid-19.