THE AMSTERDAM LIGHT FESTIVAL

Jaz James
Jan 17, 2016
6 min read

WATER COLORS CRUISE WITH LOVERS CANAL CRUISES

A Little About Lovers

Lovers Canal Cruises is one of the most well known canal cruise boat companies in this part of Amsterdam (Seventeenth Century Canal Ring) and provides many different cruises including the seasonal Light Show, dinner cruises, cruises with cocktails/wine and the typical daytime, site-seeing cruise. Lovers' boats have a pre-recorded commentary to inform you about particularly interesting parts of your tour and you are able to plug in headphones now and select a language to listen to if you do not speak English or Dutch – I believe there are about 16 or so languages to choose from.

“No longer do we have to dread the dark winter months in Amsterdam. Thanks to Amsterdam Light Festival, Amsterdam is transformed every year into a true city of lights with the help of contemporary (inter)national light artists. During this annual festival for young and old, both the residents of Amsterdam and the city’s many visitors are treated to a spectacle of light. At the same time, the festival offers talented (young) light artists a platform to present their latest work.“ - www.amsterdam-light-festival-tickets.lovers.nl

To be honest, I decided to attend the light festival in 2015 because I thought it would be a nice, relaxing little canal cruise with beautiful romantic lights and fireworks to watch... Yes, there were lights and it was a canal cruise, but no, there were no fireworks... rather, a beautiful series of light installations by artists and visual artists, some with incredible stories and meaning behind their works of art. I was pleasantly surprised, probably because I did not actually research the cruise before booking my ticket, I was more excited about the fact that I was finally in Amsterdam and had wanted to do a canal cruise for like...ever!

We (myself and Rashad) booked our cruise with Lovers Canal Cruises via our hotel. We were offered a discount simply through booking with Best Western Blue Tower Hotel (link) although, when I say 'discount' I mean € 1 off. But still, any discount is better than no discount, right? We paid around €19 each (FYI, if you will be visiting and travelling with kids, at the time we visited, it was around €9 per child).

We stayed just outside of Dam Central and therefore, booked open tickets for the 2015 Light Show – I would suggest this if you are not staying in a hotel close to the canal as the open ticket allows you to cruise the canals once at any time of the evening without having to book a specific time. This gave us time to have a look around the area, grab lunch and just be tourists in general until we were happy to hop aboard. If you prefer having a designated slot to avoid the possibility of arriving after the boat is already full, you can purchase fast track tickets either online or in Amsterdam once you arrive.

A Little About The 2015 Light Show

The cruise lasts for 75minutes and takes you around most of the Seventeenth Century Canal Ring. This year, the theme was 'Friendship' and many of the artist's pieces related to this theme quite well, others were still pretty to look and at interesting to hear about. Some of the pieces which particularly interested me were:

My Light is Your Light by Alaa Minawi
The Kite Light by Liekwe Martjin Wijnands & Saska Hoogendoom
Dearest Friend – Darya van Berner
Today I Love You – Massimo Uberti & Marco Pollice
Talking Heads – Viktor Vicsek
Run Beyond – Angelo Bonella for KitonB
Open Lounge – Géralld Périole
Bands of Friendship – Vical Patil + Santosh Gujar
Northern Lights – Aleksandra Stiatimirovic

My Light is Your Light - Alaa Minawi:

“When we don't light, we don't see” - Alaa Minawi

Minawi is a Palestinian refugee currently living in Lebanon. He specialises in light installation and has collaborated with many artists such as Nagy Souraty, Lina Abyad, Ramilya Jurban, Jawad al Assadi, etc.

My Light is Your Light is a light installation comprising of life sized neon figures. The figures are hollow and were designed to help the viewer feel a sense of emptiness similar to that felt by a refugee. The artist purposely left the insides of the figures unfilled to symbolise emptiness – something that hopefully can be filled once the refugee starts a new life.

Picture Credit: www.facebook.com/mylightisyourlight

The Kite Light - Liekwe Martjin Wijnands & Saska Hoogendoom (Tijdmakers)

“When you see it, you are automatically taken back to the summers of your youth, to the days when you had all the time in the world and could fly a kite without end. This makes the kite into a universal symbol of friendship & freedom.” - Liekwe Martjin Wijnands

Tijdmakers (or Liekwe Martjin Wijnands & Saska Hoogendoom) have been creating visual stories for over eight years and have always aimed to both inspire and connect people through visual art. “We associate the kite with sun, summer, light and warmth” - a quote from the artists which pretty much sums up this piece. Generally, I associate the kite with spring or autumn – seasons when the wind is able to take the kite to higher levels, but this is just my interpretation.

Dearest Friend - Dariya van Berner

Dearest Friend is best described as an ode to friendship. Appearing a life sized (but quite real looking) letter, it is based upon the letter written by philosopher Baruch Spinoza to friend Lodewijk Meijer. The original letter was written in Latin and talks about the book Spinoza was writing at the time; Renati des Cartes Principiorum Philosohiae & Cognitata Metaphysia.

This piece of art work is a representation of how the artist explores the relationship between people, space and technology.

(This picture has not actually been edited at all, I quite like the raw dark look it has)

Today I Love You - Massimo Uberti & Marco Pollice

Today I Love You is meant to erect questions such as 'Why today? and 'What about tomorrow?'. The artist intended to make the viewer revisit this piece again and again as the word 'today' literally applies to today and tomorrow, once it comes.

“It’s a friendly greeting, written in light. It’s a sentence which I hope will be uttered by everybody every day.” - Massimo Uberti

Talking Heads - Viktor Vicsek

Vicsek is a Hungarian designer, mainly intalling art for dance performances and theatre.

Talking Heads is based upon human communication but not via words, via lights. The light sculpture uses over 4000 LED lights which provides different facial expressions, rather like the muscles in the face. The faces have been created to change expressions once a new boat passes, like real life people reacting off of one another – this is controlled via Wi-Fi. Pretty Cool! And one of my favourite pieces of The Amsterdam Light Show 2015!

Run Beyond – Angelo Bonello for KitonB

“To me this work is about the power of imagination, a power so strong that it makes individuals conquer their fears and limitations and causes them to open up to other cultures, new friendships and unknown worlds.” - Angelo Bonello

Realistically, it sees that nobody can jump as far as this little man does, but Bonello is of the belief that nothing is impossible and that we should always try to jump towards freedom.

To me, this light installation symbolises life. Sometimes in life, we must take risks and we must take leaps, and sometimes, we will fall but the important thing is to get back up and to keep on leaping – never give up.

Photo Credit: www.amsterdamlightfestival.com

Open Lounge – Gérald Pérole

Pérole is a French light designer who's best work illumincates historical buildings and public areas.

With Open Lounge, Pérole hopes to create an inviting outside space whilst emphasising that he is not an artist, but a light designer. The beautiful lights remind me of chandeliers in an elegant ballroom – there is something rather elegant about this view.

Polygonum – Them Sculptures

Polygonum is made up of geometric lines and lights linking from one side of the canal to the other, creating rather dynamic designs and patterns in the night sky.

Tom Dekyvere – artist, sculpture and light artists is the owner of the studio (The Sculptures) and has made at lease two other submissions to The Amsterdam Light Show of previous years. His recent pieces have been the product of studies between people, whereas, this piece explores the connection between people and their surroundings.

“Today, we live in a world that manipulates the natural environment. Digital devices and microchips are intertwined with the human body. In art, we also see a lot of nature-based forms.” - Tom Dekyvere

Bands of Friendship – Vikas Patil & Santosh Gujar

Patil and Gujar are Indian light designers and architects who aim to portray hope and appreciation through this piece. A ban of friendship is a band worn around the wrist by two (or more friends), as a symbol of ever lasting friendship. This piece relates to two things in particular:

Friendship: which actually ties in with this year's theme
Europe

When seen sideways, Bands of Friendship symbolises single European countries as individuals whereas, when seen head on, the bands join – similar to the EU. They are still their own bands but also come together to form a stronger friendship – much like friendship.

Northern Lights – Aleksandra Stratimirovic

This is Stratimirovic's take on the famous Northen Lights in Norway. Again, this is another piece that ties in perfectly with the 2015 theme – friendship as this is what it symbolises. The curtain of cool-coloured lights form vertical lines which emerge from the water and also hang from above to really capture the Northern Lights in a more artistic and geometric light.