Nordvestlys (Northwestern Lights) is a co-creational light art project in Elsinore inviting the residents of Elsinore’s Northwest district to participate in the creation of the artwork. The project has been realized in collaboration between light art Studio Jakob Kvist, CATCH – Center for Art, Design and Technology and Kulturhuset Nordvest.
Nordvestlys is based on an event held in February 2021, where citizens of the Northwest district were invited to put coloured led-tubes in their windows at home. Each light tube has afterwards been collected and assembled into a site-specific sculpture, created for the new culture house in the Northwest district of Elsinore.
Taking place in the midst of the Corona pandemic Nordvestlys is based on the idea of showing solidarity and creating a sense of unity between people in some of the darkest and hardest months of 2021. As the participants have not been able to meet, interact or create under the same physical framework due to Covid-19 restrictions, Nordvestlys is taking place in the residents’ own homes and apartments. The project emphasizes that light can create a visual bond between people and bring them together without physical interaction.
To participate in the art project residents have been invited to pick up a led-tube with a gel in the colour of their choice and then install it in the windows of their home. Thus, the participating residents have helped to share light in their building by sending a luminous greeting about unity and solidarity to each other. The light in the final sculpture created for the culture house is based on the specific fixture and colour that each resident has chosen for their own home. Colors have been coordinated to represent the unique identity of the residents of the Northwest Disctrict.
After a period of three weeks the light fixtures have subsequently been collected and rebuilt by Studio Jakob Kvist into a site-specific light sculpture for the culture house. The led-tubes are used as the primary building block for the large light sculpture customized for the specific architectural setting of the culture house. To create harmonious colour sequences throughout the sculpture each coloured light tube has been systematized and composed into colour sequences.
