Are you ready? Ready to indulge yourself into some mind-boggling light shows? Then I welcome you to experience the Lilu Light Festival Lucerne in Switzerland through my lens.

Lilu stands for Light Lucerne and recently lit up the city for the second time after 2019. I only learnt about it this year, oh how glad I am I did! Hopefully, you will be as excited as I am about it after this post and include it in your itinerary or calendar next year.

Of course I share pics, but you will also find more videos than usual today and I warmly recommend to make yourself comfortable with a cuppa and take the time to watch them. Some of the light art were animations and came with their own music, for others I added what I thought would make the experience whole ;-).

Let’s go!

The artist behind Luminamur aureum stella is Andreas Steiner, a multimedia producer with auviso, and the artwork is projected to the façade of the Hotel Goldener Stern. The video is shown correctly once you hit that play button.

Next we are at The Magnificent Chocolate Hotel :0) where chocolate is permanently produced in the animation on one of Schweizerhof’s façade.
How cool would it be, if in real life, guests behind those windows could really lend a hand in producing chocolate while they are holidaying, and take some of it home for free.

Apropos, you can see and watch all of Lilu for free. There is only one light show you have to pay for and buy tickets in advance to gather a spot. It normally takes place in the church Hofkirche and is a full evening show. This year it was called Genesis 2.

But there was also a spectacular light installation on the outside of the church and its neighboring houses as you can see below. The shadow of the trees, by the way, add the cherry on top of these pics, I think, and are totally natural and literally “just” stood in the light projectors’ way. I am sure, though, the artists were fully aware of them.

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This show is from a Zurich collective of artists called Projektil. They are very famous for their truly remarkable light art and have so far done quite many of them, including Genesis 1 and 2.

Following are videos of their installation so fittingly called En-Trance. I added some background sound for you.

Below is a still of the illuminated Hofkirche. To see how the church looks like when the forms move, click here and watch my video. (Duration: 23 sec.)

I am tempted to present you my absolute favourite of Lilu now: Keys of Light. But let us practice patience a little more and marvel at some other stunning artwork in the meantime ;-).

Two ladies, Fabienne Schwarz and Nadja Schöpfer, are responsible for this fantasy story projected onto a house wall. They invited the viewer to Be Part Of.

As an ocean lover, I was fascinated by the work Medusa of Simón Aurel Schwarz and Irina Zürcher.

Animals usually move slowly in the water column and watching them is like meditating, reeeeeeeeally relaxing.

Enjoy this dive with them. Sound on!

What is your fav so far?

Mine comes now, yiewwwww :0)! Drum roll, please……, for Keys of Lights. A multi award-winning interactive piano installation that already enchanted cities like Singapore, Jerusalem, Tallinn, The Hague.

Keys of Lights was shown in a pavilion along the Lake Lucerne and it simply took my breath away. Everyone who plays piano (or doesn’t, e.g. toddlers ;0)) was invited to go on stage and perform. Artificial intelligence adjusted the visuals depending on the keys played. In doing so, minor chords looked different from majors, low keys different from high keys. Responsible for this absolute beauty for all your senses, your heart, and your soul is Mr. Beam. You must see it with motion pictures and sound!

Remember, every piece played is different, so should watch both videos ;-). I could have immersed myself for hours were it not for the very cold temperatures and the other light installations I also wanted to enjoy.

 

I hope you were able to feel some of the magic of Lilu and I wish for you to visit a Light Festival somewhere near you or maybe in Lucerne next year. Thanks for enjoying this story and please share it with whomever you think would love this, too.

Have a deLIGHTed day full of music,

Daniela