Artists and architects create unique works for GLOW

For 10 days in November 2008, downtown Eindhoven, The Netherlands, became an open-air museum to several dozen art and design installations of light in the third edition of GLOW, an international light event. By invitation, artists and architects created unique works for specific sites in downtown Eindhoven that were experienced by more than 65,000 visitors. Architect Ali Heshmati, principal of LEAD Inc., Husnes, Norway, created an interactive pavilion dubbed “Dar Luz” (which has the double meaning in Spanish of giving birth or giving light.)

Heshmati collaborated with German light architect Lars Meeß-Olsohn, Essen, to produce a vibrant fabric-clad tunnel of rotated squares. As visitors approached the piece via a gently sloping ramp, the fabric is lit a deep blue, but upon entering begin to see the color change to magenta as they pass through, the light reverting to blue again after they leave by another ramp. The color shift in light was accompanied by a corresponding two-layer sound composition created by sound artist Andreas Pasieka from Moers. This is Heshmati’s second fabric-clad light piece; his first, created for a traffic round point in his home base of Husnes, won an International Achievement Award in 2007.

For more information, visit www.gloweindhoven.nl/glow2008/plattegrond/gb_map.html.