{"id":5258,"date":"2010-12-02T15:43:35","date_gmt":"2010-12-02T05:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mediaarchitecture.org\/?p=5258"},"modified":"2010-12-02T15:43:35","modified_gmt":"2010-12-02T05:43:35","slug":"interview-with-helmut-bien-luminale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediaarchitecture.org\/interview-with-helmut-bien-luminale\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Helmut Bien \/ Luminale"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n\n

Mr Helmut Bien initiated the Luminale back in 2000 and realized the festival for the first time in 2002. The Luminale \u2013 Biennial of Lighting Culture is an international festival of lighting culture taking place every two years in Frankfurt am Main and the entire Rhine-Main region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n

1. Mr. Bien, the Luminale is already a well established institution in the\narea of light art.\u00a0 Can you tell us about the origins of the festival?<\/p>\n\n

In 2000 the lighting industry tradeshow moved from Hannover to Frankfurt.\nMichael Peters from Messe Frankfurt asked me for an event concept that\nshould connect the city of Frankfurt with the new tradeshow called Light +\nBuilding. For the days of the fair Frankfurt should become the meetingplace\nfor the whole world working with light. Not only the specialists and the\nindustry but also the creative people, the architects, designers and artists\nand also the inhabitants and normal consumers should be involved. The idea\nwas to create a transdisciplinary festival about lighting and energy and the\nqualities of urban living. Frankfurt should become a laboratory to see a\nwide range of approaches with light.<\/p>\n\n

2. How did you personally came in touch with light art and what motivates\nyou to take all the effort to organise such an event?<\/p>\n\n

In the late 80ties i worked in Berlin as a curator (Berliner Festspiele) and\nin this time i made my first professional experiences with light, the\nscenographic power of lighting. The idea to realize an exhibition about\nlighting followed me since these days. Luminale was the chance to show this\npower of light to change atmospheres and to re-organize spaces. I am a\nlittle bit romantic in the classical sense of the poet Novalis. He explained\nthat the romantic idea is to give normal things a new and higher meaning.\nLighting design gives us the possibities to enchant the world. My friends of\nthe scenographic agency Skertz\u00f2 in Paris called themselves ‘engineers of\ndreams’. That is also my personal motivation. And on this way i am enjoying\nit to discover people, engineers, designers, artists who are working on the\nsame project. That creates the spirit of Luminale.<\/p>\n\n

3. Compared to other light festivals, what do you think makes the Luminale\na unique event?<\/p>\n\n

Since 2002 when we started the first edition of Luminale, it is a great\nsuccess. A lot of people tried to copy the concept of the festival. Some of\nthese festivals are important for the local people, some are made to promote\nthe tourism, but the unique position of Luminale is the combination with the\nmost important trade fair of the lighting industry. Luminale is the festival\nfor the specialists and the local people. Luminale is well-known in the\nworldwide community of lighting enthusiasts and specialists. So Luminale is\na pole position for careers of younger designers and artists. There are some\nfestivals much bigger than Luminale. But at the end of the day you have to\ncount the heads not the legs. Also Luminale is very popular but not a mass\nconsumption event with coloured buildings looking like sad clowns. The\nunique combination with the trade fair gives Luminale the possibility to try\nnew technologies and approaches and to give a chance to the un-known. The\nMedia Facades Summit was such a project within Luminale.<\/p>\n\n

4. What are your plans for the Luminale 2012 in terms of content and size.\nIs it still possible to top 2010?<\/p>\n\n

The digitization of light is a fascinating subject. The storytelling with\nlight is a never ending challenge. Media Facades, Vjing, Projections are\ngreat themes. On the other hand the questions of energy reduction, recycling\nand sustainability. The third dimension is the development of the urban\nlife. The skyline and nightlife of Frankfurt are the stages of Luminale.<\/p>\n\n

5. What are your biggest wishes and dreams for the long term development of\nLuminale<\/p>\n\n

The biggest wish is that Frankfurt and the whole region accept light as one\nimportant dimension of its identity so that we can realize projects not only\nfor the short time of the festival. A masterplan for the whole region with\nlandmarks, light art, a green “balancity” which produces and consumes energy\nin a way that enrichs the qualities of life.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mr Helmut Bien initiated the Luminale back in 2000 and realized the festival for the first time in 2002. The Luminale \u2013 Biennial of Lighting Culture is an international festival of lighting culture taking place every two years in Frankfurt am Main and the entire Rhine-Main region.","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,14,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaarchitecture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5258"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaarchitecture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaarchitecture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaarchitecture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaarchitecture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mediaarchitecture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaarchitecture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaarchitecture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaarchitecture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}