10 Treurenberg, 1000 Brussels
Bright Festival will illuminate your evenings from 15 to 18 February 2024.
For four magical evenings, the Brussels Festival of Lights will guide you through two of the capital's emblematic neighbourhoods: the Royal Quarter and the European Quarter. Rediscover the city through some thirty poetic works created by artists from all over the world. This year's event also promises to shine the spotlight on Europe and its values, in conjunction with the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Alongside these artistic installations, an equally illuminating fringe programme of guided tours, live entertainment and heritage illuminations punctuates the festival. Oh, and there's something new for this edition: a children's zone for your little ones, from 17:30 to 22:00, so that they too can experience the magic of light this winter.
Bright Festival is an immersive, artistic experience right in the heart of the capital of Europe, it's a must!
VICTOR VASARELY - Virtual lighting environment with kinetic deep compositions
Concept by László L. Laki
Text by Márton Orosz, director of Vasarely Museum in Budapest
In collaboration with LIGHT ART MUSEUM Budapest
“It would be childish to imagine that if you make a mechanical or light-emitting box, you also belong to the trend named after movement! The artist is the optimistic builder of the city full of light!”
Hungarian-born Victor Vasarely, who completed his life’s work in France, was a key figure in the abstract geometric art that became an international movement known as Kineticism. The distinctive style of his work exploded into the public consciousness in the mid-1960s as op-art, setting off a hugely popular wave of fashion. The starting point was Vasarely’s grid-like compositions based on the contrast between black and white. These created the illusion of out-of-plane movement, bulging, or sudden swelling by shifting or bending lines. Vasarely used the absolute contrast between light and dark to create the illusion of pictorial processes in time and space. His optical experiments led him to associate the impression of motion with the plane of his compositions closed on four sides. He first began to apply his method to his works organized from the stereoscopic view of various layers sliding over each other, and constructed from acrylic sheets or glass. These “deep kinetic compositions”, first exhibited in 1955, were combined with a real experience of space. By exploiting the physical laws of refraction and reflection he created spatial collages in a continuous state of transformation through the interference of two identical abstract patterns projected on top of each other, brought to life by the movement of the viewer. The artist’s objects shown here are vehicles for a creative vision of the plastic possibilities of flat surfaces modulated by light.
„Illuminated canvases” by David Szauder is a stunning visual spectacle that casts Europe’s artistic masterpieces onto the canvas of a landmark building, re-envisioned through artificial intelligence. This event celebrates the continent’s cultural values and their sustainability, intertwining tradition with digital innovation.
As dusk falls, the building’s inside comes alive with light and motion, AI reinterprets famed European paintings, highlighting their timeless appeal in a new, dynamic format. This fusion of art and technology offers a profound and engaging experience, inviting viewers to explore Europe’s heritage as it is carried forward by the possibilities of AI.
This exhibition is a tribute to the enduring legacy of European art, showcasing how its preservation can be harmoniously linked with modern techniques, ensuring its relevance for future generations. „Illuminated canvases” is both a visual delight and a reflective journey, emphasizing the role of innovation in the stewardship of cultural treasures.
Bori Mákó & Rozi Mákó : ENDLESS
Composer Rozi Mákó and media artist Bori Mákó have been working together since 2018. The Budapest-based sister duo's work includes 360-degree projection, concerts, video installations and digital painting animation. Their reflecting images and soundscapes invite you into a meditative and sacred metaverse. The fictive landscapes and noise fields of ENDLESS, a 40-minute audio-visual performance in intertwining through shared musical and visual dynamics, guide us to landscapes of deep silences and subtle sounds. Built from fragments of digital paintings and live soundscapes, the audio-visual composition evokes the memory of a slow descent out of space and time. They will also be showing their latest video installation, animated paintings with sound design.
On Saturday 17 February, the Mákó sisters will be performing 'Endless'. The performance consists of 3 parts:
- between 6.30pm-8pm - audio-visual composition in loop
- between 8pm-9pm - live audio-visual concert by the Mákó sisters
- between 9pm-11pm - audio-visual composition in loop