Light our fire: The ultimate guide to Illuminate Adelaide
Illuminate will return this winter to warm Adelaide with its spectacular light shows. Here’s the inside word on the displays on their way and what to look out for.
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Strap yourselves for another round of the breathtaking festival that brings the warmest of glows to the coolest of winters and this year features everything from groundbreaking international acts to the best of our home-ground talent.
THE BEST OF MUSIC
llluminate has always provided a platform for musicians who merge technology and music, who seek to immerse the audience in the experience.
Think Gorillaz in 2022 or CORIN, in support of Daniel Lopatin – aka Oneohtrix Point Never – last year.
This year, however, it feels like things are going a little deeper.
There are more than 39 artists across the life of the festival. Everything from a pre-grunge legend to an underground electronic composer with a massive YouTube following.
On top of this, there’s another 15 DJs in Base Camp at Lot Fourteen.
Co-founders and creative directors Lee Cumberlidge and Rachael Azzopardi say this increased focus – and energy – is a very deliberate choice.
“We’ve always been committed to innovation in music, and artists that are using technology in interesting ways in music, since the beginning,” Cumberlidge says.
“But it felt like this year, it was even more important than ever to provide experiences in music that are memorable, visceral experiences – that you can’t get when you’re streaming online.
“This idea of bringing people together for these two experiences I think is more important now, particularly in music as there’s been a tightening of the industry and the promoters within it being able to put shows on.
“So we really want to make sure that what we did was true to our principles of providing these interesting experiences for people and also tracking a little bit ahead of what’s coming, in terms of artists that are really at the forefront of pushing boundaries.”
That’s certainly the case for renowned UK electrical musician Max Cooper, who is also an audiovisual artist, with a PhD inscience. He’s bringing his new surround 3D/AV immersive show to Illuminate.
Then there’s Dutch composer and pianist Joep Beving, who has teamed up with artist Boris Acket, in a performance that explores the connection between light and sound.
There is also a great deal of interest around Unsound, the international festival of electronic and experimental music is directed by Polish-based duo Mat Schulz and Gosia Plysa and in Adelaide will be held at the Dom Polski Centre.
Cumberlidge describes the Unsound program as a “pure delight”.
“A lot of them are doing Adelaide exclusive shows, like Eye, from Japan (who is best known for his tenure in Japanese experimental rock band Boredoms),” he says.
“The Caretaker (British artist Leyland Kirby) is an incredible composer and has a huge following on YouTube for his latest recording, it has a ridiculous number of plays. A lot of people don’t know who he is, and he’s never been to Australia before. So we’ve got him here exclusively, which is really exciting.”
And then there’s Kim Gordon, of Sonic Youth fame, who is doing some shows on the back of her new album The Collective, which received a glowing review from music bible Rolling Stone. It said Gordon, 71, has “made one of the most daring albums of her career. If you want to get it though, you have to turn it up and submit”.
Adelaide singer-songwriter Carla Lippis and her band Mondo Psycho will take to the stage as part of Illuminate’s Live at the Lab program, which brings together cutting edge music and electronic art inside Adelaide’s Centre of Immersive Light and Art. Lippis will perform amid stunning lighting and visuals, highlighted by an installation from Kaurna Yerta artists Dave Courtand Rusted Chroma, in the groundbreaking space dominated by 50sq m of LED screens
The Live at the Lab line-up focuses on local and national performers over two weekends, with Melbourne instrumental heavyweights The Night Terrors joined by acts such as No News, Georgia Oatley, Misanthropic Grief Club, and Big Yawn for the event.
France’s Compagnie Carabosse in Fire Gardens
In the hands of France’s Compagnie Carabosse, flames also become a medium for artistic expression, which will find its largest ever canvas in Fire Gardens as part of the Illuminate Adelaide festival.
“Fire is a primal thing,” says Carabosse artistic director Christian Cuomo.
“All countries’ people have a story with fire. It’s the beginning of humanity.
“Fire can be a lot of different things – it can be poetry and warmth, but it can also be disaster. We use warmth and poetry.”
Flames can be mesmeric, particularly in Carabosse’s installations, Cuomo says.
“Because we have a lot of small flames, it is hypnotising,” he says.
Compagnie Carabosse has previously presented its installations at WOMADelaide and was last here in 2020 to create Fire Gardens during the Adelaide Festival’s 60th anniversary – the summer when much of the country was grappling with devastating bushfires.
Presented here in winter for the first time, this new iteration of Fire Gardens will provide a very different experience for Illuminate audiences, Cuomo says.
He revisited the Adelaide Botanic Garden site last October and says that Illuminate will feature new configurations of more than 7000 handcrafted fire pots, candlelit archways, kinetic sculptures and live music performances to create a bewitching night-time wonderland.
The founder of flora&faunavisions, Leigh Sachwitz, says the aim of Eden, which is having its world premiere at Illuminate, is to “take away some of those very, very real fears and thoughts and worries that people have for the future’’.
Eden is billed as an “immersive, interactive show’’ that is more than just looking at a room of floor-to-ceiling LED screens. Sachwitz, speaking from her home base in Berlin, says the audience will be able to “pick up assets’’ and “pop bubbles’’.
Even if it seems contradictory, she says she wants to use technology to help people reconnect and appreciate the magnificence of nature. When the bubbles are “popped’’ seeds float down.
“So you’ll be able to grow your own plants and grow your own garden through popping bubbles, or through activating plants,’’ she says. Part of the motivation is to help spread the message on climate change.
“I think a lot of people are fed up with a lot of preaching and a lot of bad news and a lot of shit going on around the world,’’ she says. “We all know what’s going on everywhere, all the time. We wanted to try and create an educational space which educates through inspiration and optimism rather than preaching.”
THE BEST OF CITY LIGHTS
Grand Mix by Inook (France)
Audiences are invited to step into a whimsical world when Renaissance artworks break free from the facade of the AGSA building. Characters come alive, harmonising with beloved Aussie pop anthems, creating an immersive experience. Join the participatory journey, merging historical characters with contemporary tunes, and be part of the dance and singalong, blending past and present in a celebration of art and music.
Glow by Amigo & Amigo (Australia)
Created by Sydney-based artist studio Amigo & Amigo, Glow is an interactive light installation inspired by the phases of the moon. Featuring 40 interactive poles, each equipped with its own touch sensor, visitors can create their own musical mix as they touch the poles, triggering unique sounds and dynamic lighting animations.
ChronoHARP by Amigo & Amigo (Australia)
ChronoHARP reimagines the beauty of the traditional harp into a visual experience. This new instrument of light and colour is a delicate and precisely woven triangular form that reacts to human movement by sending light animations resonating throughout its structure. Unlike its inspiration, which is designed to be played by a single person, ChronoHARP invites all to take part in an accessible experience.
The World Has Gone Pear Shaped by Tine Grech studio (UK)
Enter the thought-provoking world of The World Has Gone Pear Shaped and picture a large-scale inflatable sculpture where our planet is transformed into a pear, prompting reflection on our environmental impact.
Using NASA’s detailed 3D images, this 6m tall artwork vividly illustrates humanity’s role in reshaping Earth, urging us to rethink our connection with the environment.
intangible #form by Shohei Fujimoto (Japan)
intangible #form blurs the lines between what is real and what’s not. Powered by choreographed kinetic lasers, strobes, haze and moving lights, this multi-sensory exhibition is dramatic, visceral and operatic in nature. Throughout multiple rooms of installations, intentional minimalism and repetitive, modular rhythms create a hypnotic, entrancing environment where the intangible can become tangible.
Illumaphonium by Michael Davies (UK)
Created by musician and inventor Michael Davis, Illumaphonium is a semi-acoustic,
semi-automatic, multi-player musical sculpture, which stands almost 4m tall and consists of more than 100 illuminated chime bars. Each of the bars responds to touch, with ever-changing patterns of light and sound, spreading out like waves over the giant instrument’s surface.
Storm by Tim Gruchy (Australia)
There is a storm brewing as our digital and physical selves become more intrinsically linked. Our physical, social and emotional worlds have begun to lean on technology to find regulation and information. But how much should we be letting the online seep into our everyday lives?
Tim Gruchy examines this and asks when the physical and digital combine, what happens to the soul.
Urban Garden by Tilt (France and Illuminate Adelaide)
This large-scale luminaire will evoke a bouquet of glowing wild grasses to captivate the senses.
Like a volcanic eruption, its red twigs and vibrant blue tips will flare up in a voluptuous firework. The slender stems, adorned with blue fireflies, add an enchanting touch of elegance and movement to this mesmerising spectacle.
Time by Filip Roca (Spain)
Set against the backdrop of Government House, Time will highlight the shift in how we perceive reality through sight and sound. Instead of just being a straight line, time is like a beat, always changing and making new things happen.
It moves us ahead but also reminds us of things that are gone. Watching this piece will help us think about how we see the world and imagine things beyond what we usually know. ■
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