TAVA2018 announces workshop heads, artists and conference speakers


2nd May 2018

(Estonia) – Held from 20 October to 20 November, TAVA2018 will feature a number of IALD designers across its programme of workshops, conferences and installations.

Organisers of architectural lighting design and light art festival Tartu in Light have announced selected IALD architectural lighting design and mapping workshop heads, installation and indoor exhibition artists and conference speakers for this year’s event.

Held over a month from 20 October to 20 November, the second installment of Tartu in Light – TAVA2018 – will feature open-air installations, a lighting design conference and workshops, based around the themes of Radical Light and Resilient Design in a Changing World.

Elo Liiv, the main organiser of TAVA2018, said: “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 a good list of candidates.”

This year’s six open-air installations are curated by Varvara & Mar, with an aim to reconfigure and rethink six well-known places in the heart of Tartu’s Old Town. Participating artists include Immanuel Pax from Finland, Estonians Taavi Suisalu and Timo Toots, Mónica Ruiz Loyola from Mexico, Mischa Kuball from Germany, and Dane Jakob Tækker.

The lighting design conference, held on October 25, will feature such speakers as Amardeep M. Dugar from India, Claire Tomara from the United Kingdom, Turkey’s Emre Güneş, Johan Röklander and Lina Färje from Sweden, and Darío Nuñez Salazar from Iceland and 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.”

One of the most exciting parts of TAVA2018 is the series of IALD architectural lighting design workshops. Held from October 20-24, the workshops will change the nightly appearance of three historical sites in Tartu: the buildings of Tartu Toy Museum, St. John’s Church and the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research.

Workshop heads Amardeep M. Dugar, Johan Röklander, Simas Rinkevicus and Ruta Palionyte will each lead a week long workshop for the sites. Sabine de Schutter, curator of the workshops, said: “The impact of lighting workshops is manifold. 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.”

Indoor light art exhibitions under the theme of Vacuum as a School of Thought will run throughout the course of the festival. Curated by KIWA and featuring work from the likes of Cark Michael von Hausswolff, Liisa Hirsch, Tammo Sumera, Kristel Saan, Johannes Luik and Aivar Tõnso, the indoor exhibition will also feature the Dreamachine, a device causing hallucinations invented by Brion Gysein in 1959 and popularised by William Burroughs and Psychic TV.

Furthermore, the TAVA2018 programme will also feature a high-level mapping workshop, run form October 21-24, led by professionals from Limelight – a highly regarded artist group in the field of 3D art and light installations.

www.tartuvalgus.ee

Pic: Annika Haas