The lighting design installation was made up of three-dimensional sculptures inspired by people as the protagonists of the space in which a light source — like a “beacon in the industrial night” — created a scenography of accelerated shadows
Date
12 February 2025
The lighting design installation was made up of three-dimensional sculptures inspired by people as the protagonists of the space in which a light source — like a “beacon in the industrial night” — created a scenography of accelerated shadows
IED Barcelona presented ‘Eternal Shift’, a lighting design proposal that generates a dialogue between actors, light and nature, from 7 to 9 February at Llum BCN, the Light Arts Festival organised by Barcelona City Council’s Institute of Culture.
The installation, located on the basketball court of the Parc del Centre de Poblenou, was composed of a series of three-dimensional sculptures inspired by people, surrounding a light source that acts like a “beacon in the industrial night”. Through an interplay between accelerated lights and shadows, the beacon guided and transformed the space in a set design that saw the rhythm of the light take centre stage.
Raffaella Perrone, Head of the Design School at IED Barcelona explains: “‘Eternal Shift’ proposes a beacon that places the focus on the rhythm of light and our everyday lives. Projecting semi-human silhouettes, the installation accelerates until the shadows become prisoners of time, and finally come to a halt.”
“The beacon thus becomes a source of light that keeps people permanently alert and attentive, chained to a changing rhythm that disconnects them to the point of isolating them from the world around them in order to integrate them into the nature that surrounds them. A dialogue is established between nature, light and elements that appear and disappear, as if it were a theatrical piece.” Adds Mery Glez, Head of the Visual Arts School at IED Barcelona.
Conceived by Product Design, Interior Design, Graphic Design, Motion Graphics and Video, and Business Design students, the installation sought to reconnect viewers with their surroundings. In this case, the Parc del Centre del Poblenou, developed by the French Architect and Designer Jean Nouvel; a space with working-class origins, with the basketball court as a key dynamic element that, today, aspires to be a green oasis for young people and families.
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IED double with “Fosfénica”, by alumnus Rosa Tharrats
IED Barcelona alumnus Rosa Tharrats (who graduated in Fashion Design) was one of the artists on the Llum BCN line-up this year. She presented “Fosfénica”, a proposal that transformed Room A of the DHUB into a dreamlike landscape with a copper structure from which salt-treated fabrics, clothes, ribbons and dichroic sheets hung, generating a kaleidoscopic play of reflections that changed with perspective.
This year, nearly 300,000 people visited Llum BCN, consolidating the festival as one of the city's essential cultural events.
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Credits:
IED Barcelona students (in alphabetical order): Alexander Andersen, Luis Roberto Bloch, Sofia Iordan, Giulia Martinelli, Arslan Nafikov, Arey Thorisdottir and Malak Yahia.
Tutors: Joan Recasens, Raffaella Perrone and Mery Glez.
Coordination: David López and Simona Cannonito.
With the collaboration of: Antonio Aranzana and Narek Mnatsakanyan.
Photo: Christian Bertrand
Photo: Víctor Parreño
Photo: Víctor Parreño