SPOTLIGHT: BIENNALE LIGHT ART, ITALY
“A PALE BLUE DOT” IN OUR DARK TIMES
By Jacqueline Ceresoli
Vittorio Erlindo (1947), a cultural agitator operating from a global perspective, independent thinker and curator with a passion for unconventional art, has organised around a hundred exhibitions and events in the realms of public administration and art spaces, constantly experimenting with anything new. We asked the curator of the Biennale of Light Art (24th October 2026/17th January 2027) in Mantua how these luminous works will "ignite" thoughts on the need to cross the darkness in which this crazy world is currently enveloped.
How has light added new meanings to contemporary art since the first Biennial of Light Art?
The world’s first Biennial of Light Art Biennale featuring luminous works was held in Mantua in 2016. Peter Assmann, the first Austrian director at the Ducal Palace, invited me to design and create something new that then levitated like bread into the Loggiato and across the law of Prato della Cavallerizza during the year when Mantua was the Capital of Culture.
What are the main aims of the sixth edition of the Biennial of Light Art?
The 6th edition entitled "A Pale Blue Dot," brings us all back down to earth and warns those powerful, men who are taking the world to the brink of dissolution and destruction, that we are all part of this tiny planet lost in the Universe: we are all migrants in need of peace and love. Those who wage wars should be imprisoned or placed in an asylum.
What is new about this forthcoming Biennial?
It is a Biennial in which new artists come together both as a form of protest and as an affirmation that light art can still show us a possible way ahead. Light Art has freed art from canvases, brushes and chisels and taken it out into the squares and streets; it is democratic and creates communal spaces.
How would you describe light?
It is photons and luminous electromagnetic particles that give life to the Earth and have been weaving our lives into one great patchwork for millennia. It is a scientific, artistic and emotional universe that can enchant literally everybody. Particularly young people, but most notably children and the elderly. Light Art does not expect you to know the history of art; it is a contemporary artform that can surprise and amaze us. Its charm lies in its ongoing battle with darkness and man’s efforts to free the world from the chains of darkness.
