Light is an essential ingredient of life. Light makes us see, realise and experience things. But what is light? What is good light? What is the meaning of light and how does it affect us?
In order to provide answers to these questions, and a few more, Vandalorum has for this exhibition invited Nordic artists, designers, light designers, architects and researchers in the area of ethnology and physics. Working in widely different areas they all have one thing in common – light is the starting point of their work.
From left: Snøhetta, Living the Nordic Light photo: Patrik Lindvall
Light is not an easy thing to describe in words, it needs to be experienced. The participants’ answers to the questions above are therefore expressed as physical installations, of which several are created specifically for barn 1 and the inner yard of Vandalorum. The works are designed for active participation with body and mind. We are encouraged to explore, play and experiment, but also to slow down in order to really perceive the miraculous ability light has to change environments, situations and objects. Light takes time.
Three different themes run through the exhibition. In the eastern part and outdoors are works dealing with daylight, how it helps us to keep track of time and how it changes our living spaces. In the middle of the exhibition are works which explore the relation between light and colour and in the western part the relation between light and darkness is problematized from a contemporary as well as a historic perspective. At the back of the hall, in the darkest room of the exhibition, is perhaps the clearest explanation of what light actually is.
Participants:
Malin Alenius – architect White, SE
Athanassios Danilof - light designer, GR
Johanna Enger – light designer, PHD student LTH, SE
Jan Garnert – ethnologist, technology historian, SE
Anna Gudmundsdottir – designer, IS/SE
Matthew Hall – architect, US
Göran Hellborg – architect (initiator), SE
Malin Holmberg – artist, SE
Vesa Honkonen – architect, designer, professor, FI
Astrid Krogh – artist, designer, DK
Johannes Lindén – physicist, postdoc DTU, DK
Katja Pettersson – designer, SE
Svante Pettersson – light designer Bjerking, SE
Ellen Ruge – light designer opera/theatre, NO
Daniel Rybakken – artist, NO
Snøhetta – architects, designers NO
Aleksandra Stratimirovic – artist, SE
Karin Søndergaard – artist, DK
Thanks to Bertil & Britt Svenssons stiftelse för belysningsteknik, Nordisk kulturfond, Stiftelsen Längmanska kulturfonden, Clara Lachmanns stiftelse, Letterstedtska föreningen, Källemo, Targetti, Värnamo kommun, Region Jönköpings län, Kulturrådet