LIGHT ART
KOSMOS LAB'22
“We must see light art as a separate field of art that needs to be studied,” says Žilvinas Vingelis, so the fourth visual theatre laboratory was dedicated to light. We contacted the workshop mentor Yaron Abulafia after reading his book “The Art of Light on Stage: Lighting in Contemporary Theatre”. He came to ask: “Do lighting designers in Lithuania work with the director, playwright and set designer from the very beginning? If not, why is the lighting designer perceived as a technician who colours a work that has already been created, rather than as an artist?”…
Mentors
Mentor team
YARON ABULAFIA (PhD) Internationally renowned lighting designer, scenographer, artist-researcher, and exhibition curator, distinguished by a painterly, sculptural, and visually innovative approach and a poetic perception of light as space. Over the past 20 years, he has created more than 250 performances, performative installations, and concerts. One of the ambassadors of the Prague Quadrennial (PQ). Curator of the prestigious exhibition “WORLD STAGE DESIGN” (2022, Canada). Based on his doctoral research, he wrote a book that became perhaps the first and main research source on light, examining in depth the latest trends in the light art of contemporary and postdramatic theatre.
10
DAYS
20
PARTICIPANTS
Participants
Simas Sirutavičius, Paulius Jakubėnas, Jurgis Latonas, Pijus Vasiliauskas, Andrius Kolpakovas, Laura Luišaitytė, Kotryna Daujotaitė, Dalia Kiaupaite, Izabelė Narečionytė, Viktorija Venckutė, Emilija Višinskaitė, Andrius Žiūrauskas, Giedrė Vosylienė, Agnija Leonova, Aušra Bakanaitė, Agnė Nemanytė, Tomas Stonys, Aneta Bublytė, Denisas Kolomyckis, Milda Sokolovaitė.
The showcase
GENESIS
The creation of the world. The first four days, as described in the Book of Genesis, in the Old Testament: 1) separation of light/darkness; 2) the appearance of bodies of water; 3) creation of vegetation; 4) creation of the sun and the moon.
Four separate stages, each beginning and ending with a clear sign – lighting trusses and bars being raised and lowered.
We portray the creation of the world through images created by stage spotlights. For each stage, a separate tool for building dynamics: 1) illuminating the same object from different angles, shifting from one perspective to another while slowing down or accelerating the pace; 2) shining light through a water tank, beginning with still water and gradually disturbing its surface more and more; 3) the growth of vertical columns of light by raising the spotlights themselves; 4) different cycles of switching on and off for two light sources, creating micro-variations over time – at moments synchronising, then drifting out of sync again.
Light is an element without which no other stage element can exist, yet it is also one of the most ephemeral. For this reason, we chose to capture the image created by light in paint on a canvas lying on the floor, using light as a stencil.
Each stage becomes a new layer laid over the previous one. Four colours: black, blue, green, and red. At the end of the work, the traces of paint left on the canvas form a composite result of four separate images created by light.
The showcase
2022