“An impressive program of around 110 installations will be on show in Frankfurt and Offenbach from 12th to 15th March, 2020 – for the first time over an entire weekend – and many of them in the public space,” says Peter Feldmann, Lord Mayor of the City of Frankfurt and Luminale patron.
“There will also be a stage program with a total of 16 events and 42 TALK guests. As in 2018, the festival center will be at the Instituto Cervantes in the former Amerika-Haus,” explains Feldmann.
“With ‘Digital Romantic’, for the first time, Luminale, the Biennial for Light Art and Urban Design, is presenting a thematic focus for artistic works. Thus, in the year 2020, the festival will be at the forefront of the times, an age characterised by technological and social upheaval,” the Lord Mayor continues. As well as the artistic and historical, aspects of urban planning and social dimensions will likewise be explored.”
The Luminale 2020 is thus internationally positioned. Participants are coming from Japan, New Zealand, USA, Hong Kong, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, Croatia, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. The venues include the city’s major sights, such as the Römer and the Alte Oper (Old Opera House), as well as such lesser-known, hidden places as the Fishermen’s Vault on the River Main. Places that have long been inaccessible, such as St. Leonhardskirche or a vaulted cellar in Ostparkstrasse, can be rediscovered. The variety of the presentations is immense: video mappings on building facades, installations in churches, the historic ramparts, upon and even in the water, a mobile light artwork, the staging of an entire street, an artificial sky, augmented reality, concerts, performances and a series of initiative projects by the Frankfurt and Offenbach City Society, form a multi-faceted program. One work even thematizes light without it actually being implemented.
“We have been able to attract many new partners,” says Isa Rekkab, head of Luminale. “The Biennial is a project involving the whole of city society: cultural institutions, scientific institutes, studios, galleries, museums, nightlife, associations, initiatives and religious communities from all over Frankfurt and Offenbach are taking part. Many participants developed their creative ideas on their own initiative and put them into practise with unparalleled commitment.”
The CURATED program brings together 23 outstanding artistic projects at the interface of light and city. The focus is on projects created for a specific location in Frankfurt or Offenbach and explores its architecture, history or future perspectives.
