For the fourth time, iLo, in collaboration with Women in Lighting (WIL), organised a New Year’s gathering featuring a talk on 30 January. Once again this year, we held the event at the Greenhouse in Utrecht.
A spot right in the middle of the I Light U route, making it the perfect location to get together, listen to a talk and then go for a walk past the artworks of I Light U 2026. It was lovely to see everyone hanging on every word during the talk by Tine Bech, a light artist with a piece on the I Light U route.
Tine Bech Playfulness
Tine spoke about her work and, in particular, about the way she creates her art, drawing on experience – preferably a shared experience. She illustrated this with a number of examples. She referred to the artwork as “Illuminated Swimming”. Swimming in colour in a swimming pool, inspired by the paintings of Mark Rothko. She used this as an example to illustrate the theme that runs through all her works and recurs time and again, namely: human interaction, and playfulness as ways of discovering colour and space. She also emphasised how advances in lighting technology have expanded the possibilities for creativity with light.
Keep playing
According to Tine, we must continue to observe the world and respond to it with a playful spirit. Play demonstrates that we can adapt, use our imagination and forge social bonds.
She regards this as an important human trait and actively encourages it through her artworks. She also describes this approach as audience engagement: creating moments where curiosity, colour and participation come together and play a major role.
A second artwork she mentioned in this context was “Colour Me Beautiful”, in which spectators walk across five “runways” – paths resembling the catwalks used in fashion shows – on a huge LED screen. At the end, they strike a pose, much like a model on a catwalk, and the camera captures this in the colour of the “runway” they have chosen.
Tine showed a video of this, in which you see all sorts of people walking confidently to the end of the ‘runway’ and posing for the camera. This playful interaction invites people to step into the artwork and truly experience it by becoming part of it.
Public engagement
Alongside various other works, she concluded with an artwork that connected not only people, but also two cities. In this artwork, entitled “We Believe”, the public in two different cities became co-creators of the artwork and were thus able to influence the colours projected onto two striking buildings. Tine showed a video of this project, in which the live interaction between the two locations was clearly visible.
It was an inspiring and fascinating talk. Afterwards, Tine fielded a number of questions from the audience. There was clearly a great deal of interest in both the artistic ideas and the practical execution behind the works.
Walking I light U 2026
After the talk, we gathered outside and led by Bastiaan Schoof, curator of I Light U, we walked past the twelve artworks.
The evening then drew to a close with one last drink in the Greenhouse. What a beautiful end to this wonderful evening of light, art and shared experiences.
Networking over drinks
As we notice every year, this year too there was a lovely mix of people from all sorts of lighting disciplines. There were lighting designers from the worlds of architecture and theatre, various light artists, lighting engineers, a few representatives from suppliers and distributors, students from the Amsterdam University of the Arts, and even two organisers of another light festival, namely Lichtfestival Vonk.