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TAVA2018 announces workshop heads, artists and conference speakers

Architectural lighting design and light art festival Tartu in Light | TAVA2018, that will take place this autumn for the second time, announces selected IALD [1] architectural lighting design and mapping workshop heads, installation and indoor exhibition artists and conference speakers. “I am very happy that the TAVA festival has become popular among lighting design professionals and light-artists. In total we had 93 applicants and it was quite difficult to make the final pick from such good list of candidates,” said Elo Liiv, the main organizer of TAVA2018.

This year’s festival theme for TAVA open-air light-installations is „Radical light”. The program is curated by Varvara & Mar and according to the curators, the six light installations will help to reconfigure and rethink six well-known places in the heart of Tartu’s Old Town. Participating artists are: Immanuel Pax (Finland), Taavi Suisalu (Estonia), Mónica Ruiz Loyola (Mexico), Timo Toots (Estonia), Mischa Kuball (Germany) and Jackob Tækker (Denmark). Installations are open for public October 25-28.

On October 25 an international lighting design conference and a lightfair will take place. The theme of both events is „Resilient Design in a Changing World”. Selected speakers include Amardeep M. Dugar (India), Claire Tomara (United Kingdom), Emre Güneş (Turkey), Johan Röklander (Sweden), Lina Färje(Sweden) and Darío Nuñez Salazar (Iceland/Mexico). The curators, Johan Moritz and Tina Wikström, said: “In a time of change we can all see that quality, sustainability and close connection to the end-user shows us that every shift of technology is finding its way back to its original purpose, that is the human itself. During this conference we will try to use examples of quality lighting design to showcase how it may have a lasting impression on the vision of future.”

Yet another important and perhaps the most exciting part of TAVA2018 is a series of IALD [1] architectural lighting design workshops (Oct. 20-24) that will change the nightly appearance of 3 historical sites in Tartu: the buildings of Tartu Toy Museum, St. John’s Church and Estonian Ministry of Education and Research.  Our four talented workshop heads Amardeep M. Dugar (India), Johan Röklander (Sweden) and Simas Rinkevicus & Ruta Palionyte (Lithuania) will each lead a week-long workshop. The curator of the architectural lighting design workshops, Sabine De Schutter (Belgium): “The impact of lighting workshops is manyfold. As we experienced in our last edition, they do not only create a beautifully lit city, they also spark interest in light design, and are, for many participants, an entry point into the profession. Here in Tartu, these lighting installations are regarded as prototypes for public lighting, and contributions to the development of lighting strategies and light awareness in Estonia.”

From October 24 indoor light art exhibitions under the theme “Vacuum as a School of Thought” will be opened. The curator of the exhibition, KIWA, comments: “The interaction between light as a metaphor and as an illuminating visual impulse “creates worlds” based on the aspects of psychogeography and new mythology. This interaction is attended by observations of the gray area between events that take place in consciousness that registers impulses and the surrounding environment.”
During the month-long period everybody can enjoy the works of Carl Michael von Hausswolff (Sweden), Liisa HirschTammo SumeraKristel SaanJohannes LuikAivar Tõnso (Estonia) and Artist Unknown (Unknown). Also, the legendary Dreamachine, a device causing hallucinations, invented by Brion Gysin in 1959 and made popular by William Burroughs and Psychic TV, will be presented for the first time in Estonia.

As a part of TAVA2018 program high-level mapping workshop (Oct. 21-24) lead by professionals from Limelight [2] will take place for the first time in Estonia. Limelight is one of the highly acknowledged artist groups in the field of 3D art and light-installations.

Photography: Annika Haas