The most magical festival of light in Europe will surprise this year with extraordinary guests – during the Bella Skyway Festival Toruń will be dominated by several meters long Anooks!
This summer, Bella Skyway Festival will once again be in the heart of Toruń.The thirteenth edition of the Toruń light festival will be held on August 16-20, 2022. For five summer evenings, the amazing glow of light installations will enliven the city’s night scenery.The theme of the 13th Bella Skyway Festival will be Event Horizon.
The festival – organized continuously since 2009, and since 2013 in cooperation with TZMO SA and the Bella brand – which is a unique combination of the beauty of architecture, the art of light and scientific, mainly astronomical inspirations – is the largest outdoor cultural event in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship and one of the highest rated cultural events in the country by specialists.
Taking place in the heart of Toruń’s Gothic Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the festival offers everything that today’s extremely demanding viewer expects – production momentum, artistic reverie, easy and wide access to audiovisual art presented in an accessible way and direct interaction with the audience. The event uses a whole range of artistic means of expression from subtle installations to the use of state-of-the-art audio-video techniques that leave an unforgettable impression in the viewers.
As part of the Bella Skyway Festival, art is presented in the city space, and light installations, special actions and happenings are dedicated to specific places. The event is open-air.
Photo credit: Adrian Chmielewski
For ten editions, bella Skyway Festival has been awarded with numerous awards that confirm the original character of the festival on a European scale. The extraordinary, beyond European measure, Bella Skyway Festival is emphasized by the prestigious and important events that take place during the festival. During the 9th edition, an international meeting of the heads of light festivals from all over Europe, North America and Asia took place.
Bella Skyway Festival also enjoys unflagging interest of the artists themselves, who submit their works to the next editions of the festival every year. In the last three years, the announced calls for proposals have received over 90 applications from over a dozen countries every year.
In 2018, it was exactly 92 proposals – including installations from countries such as France, Great Britain, Germany, Australia and Thailand. Bella Skyway Festival belongs, and is also one of the founders, the only organization in the world associating organizers of light festivals – international light festival organization.
Photo credit: Adam Brzoza/ National Geographic
The mission of the International Light festival Organisation is to bring together individual light festivals around the world to share vision, inspiration on an international level and to exchange knowledge and experiences together. The aim is to improve the quality, strength and artistic content of member festivals and to create awareness of the world’s festivals and light works of art.
In 2022, for the second time in the festival’s history, this task was entrusted to the French group “The Anookis”, known for light games and jokes on the facades of buildings. The mapping will be addressed in particular to families with children, referring to animations popular on the Internet. The multimedia part of the installation will be complemented by spatial, several-meter-high figures of Anook spread across the area, showing nice characters climbing onto the roof of the Collegium Minus building or jumping on the lawn.
For the first time in history, the festival of light will visit the premises of the Maria Znamierowska-Prüfferowa. Modern sculptures and installations in combination with the traditional architecture of the open-air museum will create an interesting combination of local history, nature and modern technology. Visitors to the festival will have a unique opportunity to discover a completely new side of the Ethnographic Museum, which will be illuminated by the unusual glow of the festival lights. Installations will use one of the basic and most important elements in human life, which is water. Fountains or water pools installed in the museum will emphasize the important role of nature in our lives.
In 2022, the three ticketed zones of the Bella Skyway Festival will be supplemented with an open accompanying event, which the Toruń festival wants to support by Ukrainian artists – excellent 3D mapping makers who, in the face of the criminal attack by Russia, lost their earnings overnight. An unusual mapping, prepared by a collective of Ukrainian artists, displayed at the church of Holy Spirit in the Old Town Square will be an expression of the Bella Skyway Festival’s solidarity with the Ukrainian nation.
According to the organizers, this year’s edition of the festival will also be a ticketed event.
The limitation of the area is primarily aimed at better preparation of the festival from the logistical side. For viewers, this will mean safety and greater comfort of watching the attractions.
Tickets available: http://www.bellaskyway.pl/2022/bilety/
