Press Release: Embargoed until Monday 4th January 2016

Lumiere , 14th-17th January 2016

Westminster Abbey, BAFTA 195 , and the Granary Building at King’s Cross amongst locations set to shine in first ever Lumiere London.

Full programme and locations revealed for spectacular four-night event that will chase away the January blues and show the city in a new light.

The full programme for London’s first Lumiere light festival has been revealed today, a brand new event that is set to transform the city's streets and buildings across four evenings this month.

Developed by creative producers Artichoke and supported by the Mayor of London, Lumiere London runs from 14th-17th January 2016, 6.30-10.30pm. Free to attend, the festival will re-imagine London’s urban landscape and architecture in 30 artworks across four main areas: King’s Cross; and Grosvenor Square; Piccadilly, Regent Street, and St James’s; and and .

With founding support from Atom Bank, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Heart of London Business Alliance, London & Partners and King’s Cross, plus additional support from a host of partners and sponsors, including Westminster City Council, Lumiere London will transform parts of London’s West End and King's Cross into a glittering pedestrian playground.

Lumiere London aims to attract Londoners and tourists alike into the heart of the capital during what is traditionally one of the quieter months of the year. Festival visitors are being encouraged to explore the dazzling night-time gallery on foot, discovering parts of the capital for the first time and seeing familiar sights in a new light.

There are easy walking routes between many of the 30 exhibits and plenty of opportunities to stay and linger over a drink or a meal at the many venues and attractions along the way.

1 Suggested walking routes include: from Leicester Square through to Trafalgar Square and ; from Piccadilly Circus to Grosvenor Square via Piccadilly Arcade and St James’s; along Regent Street via Carnaby to Oxford Circus; and from Euston Road to King’s Cross, Granary Square and beyond. The festival map will be available to download at www.visitlondon.com/lumiere and will be distributed to festival visitors in London’s West End and King’s Cross during the event.

NEWLY-ANNOUNCED INSTALLATIONS INCLUDE:

At Westminster Abbey, French digital artist Patrice Warrener will use his chromalithe technique to “paint” the Abbey’s West Gate in an electric riot of colour. The Light of the Spirit will highlight the series of stone statues above the Great West Door including Dr Martin Luther King and El Salvadorean Bishop Oscar Romero, as well as parts of the two Western Towers built by Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor.

In Piccadilly, the Lumineoles light sculptures will dance with the elements, while on the façade of BAFTA 195 Piccadilly, leading stars and directors of British screen and TV will appear as part of 195 Piccadilly, a dynamic, technicolour artwork by Newcastle-based studio NOVAK, with a striking soundtrack by Ed Carter. Exploring the different genres of cinema and television and using images from BAFTA’s archive, including Michael Caine, Olivia Coleman, Idris Elba, Steve McQueen, and Julie Walters, the piece will draw out the architectural features of the building and refer to its origins as the home of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours. (Supported by Levy Real Estate and in partnership with Heart of London Business Alliance and BAFTA 195 Piccadilly)

At King’s Cross, visitors will be able to explore the area, its buildings and spaces through 11 installations and projected artworks, including Circus of Light, a magical animation across the breadth of the repurposed Granary Building especially commissioned for the festival from Portuguese studio Ocubo, and Diver by Ron Haselden, a 17-metre light sculpture at the King’s Cross Swimming Pond Club.

ADDITIONAL PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

King’s Cross  Light Graffiti, Floating Pictures (Sweden) in collaboration with Digital Art Center (Stockholm University) and Pew Square. An interactive installation that invites audiences to use torches on smartphones or any other source of light to hand to paint onto their surroundings. (In partnership with King’s Cross)

 Spectra-3: Lux, Field (UK). A living, sensing and moving light sculpture, attempting to connect with the people around it and with something far, far out there. (In partnership with King’s Cross)

Previously announced installations in King’s Cross:  binaryWaves by Lab[au] (Belgium), Regent’s Canal  Joining the Dots by Cleary Connolly (Ireland/France), German Gymnasium at Battle Bridge Place  Litre of Light by Mick Stephenson (UK) with Central Saint Martins students and MyShelter Foundation Central Saint Martins Crossing  Platonic Spin by Nathaniel Rackowe (UK), Regent’s Place, Euston Road

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London’s West End  Elephantastic by Catherine Garret/Top’lá Design (France) A strikingly life-like elephant emerges from a cloud of dust to make his slow and heavy journey through the archway on Air Street between Piccadilly and Regent Street, bringing the sounds of the jungle to central London. (In partnership with Regent Street Association and The Crown Estate)

 I Haven’t Changed my Mind in a Thousand Years, Beth J. Ross (UK) Two long-forgotten 11th century proverbs discovered in a medieval manuscript, re-written in neon and exhibited on the Piccadilly Arcade. (In partnership with Great Portland Estates)

 Keyframes by Groupe LAPS/Thomas Veyssiére (France) Veyssiere’s trademark LED stickmen emerge from an un-noticed 19th century frieze at the top of Liberty House on Regent Street and run riot across the front of the building. (In partnership with Regent Street Association and The Crown Estate)

 Luminéoles, Porté Par Le Vent (France) Floating along Piccadilly and lit from within, these graceful dreamlike creatures will dance with the elements, ebbing and flowing with the music and, creating beautiful colourful shapes as they go. (In partnership with Heart of London Business Alliance)

Previously announced installations in London’s West End  1.8 London by Janet Echelman (US), Oxford Circus  Garden of Light by TILT (France), Leicester Square  Les Voyageurs by Cedric Le Borgne (France), St James’s  Shaida Walking 2015 by Julian Opie (UK), Broadwick Street opposite Carnaby Street

Mayfair / Grosvenor Square  Aquarium, Benedetto Bufalino & Benoit Deseille (France). A defunct red phone box in Mayfair becomes a living aquarium filled with goldfish. (In partnership with Grosvenor Great Britain & Ireland)

 Brothers & Sisters, Ron Haselden (France) Part of a series of works created by Haselden over a number of years, this installation is based on drawings by schoolchildren from the Isle of Dogs, London, and transformed into large sculptures using LED embedded light- rope. (In partnership with Grosvenor Great Britain & Ireland)

 Sanctuary, Sarah Blood (UK). Sarah Blood’s installation of neon birdhouses nestles in the trees in Brown Hart Gardens, connected by a soundscape of choreographed birdsong. (In partnership with Grosvenor Great Britain & Ireland)

 Spinning Night in Living Colour, Elaine Buckholz (US). Buckholz reimagines Van Gogh’s painting All Night Café sampled like a spinning record with a shaking video camera and transformed into a series of moving line paintings. With an original sound score by Floor van de Velde and Elaine Buckholtz. (In partnership with Grosvenor Great Britain & Ireland)

Trafalgar Square

3  Centrepoint. The giant neon letters that used to grace the top of London’s Centrepoint building find a temporary new home at London’s epicentre in Trafalgar Square. (Supported by Almacantar)  Plastic Islands, Luzinterruptus (Spain). A series of glowing sculptures in the Trafalgar Square fountains. Made from thousands of recycled plastic bottles, the piece is inspired by and a commentary on the “Eighth-Continent”, the garbage patch of marine litter accumulated in the North Pacific Ocean.

Founding Partner Bloomberg Philanthropies is working alongside Artichoke to enhance public engagement with Lumiere London and will host “The Heart and Soul of the City', an event at which Lumiere London artists will discuss and debate the life of the city, the public realm and how they can be transformed by communities and artists. For further details see www.visitlondon.com/lumiere.

Artichoke is working with Team London, the Mayor’s volunteering programme for London, to recruit over 200 volunteers from across the capital to help make the festival a success. From sharing knowledge of the city and recommending places to eat and drink, to helping audiences discover more about the artworks, this week is the last chance to sign up here: http://volunteerteam.london.gov.uk

The full festival programme is attached in the press pack and can be downloaded along with further details from the dedicated website created by lead media partner London & Partners: www.visitlondon.com/lumiere.

ENDS Follow the conversation using hashtag #LumiereLDN

For further information, interviews and images contact: Anna Vinegrad T: +44 (0)20 7650 7611 / +44 07813 808487 E: [email protected]

Editor’s Notes Find out more about planning your journey during Lumiere London at tfl.gov.uk/lumiere

About Lumiere Lumiere was created by Artichoke in Durham in 2009, and has been recommissioned by Durham County Council every two years since then. In 2013, Artichoke also produced Lumiere in Derry~Londonderry UK City of Culture, commissioned by Culture Company 2013. In November 2015, the festival returned to Durham for the fourth time, attracting an estimated 200,000 visitors to the city. lumiere-festival.com

About Artichoke Producers of extraordinary live events, Artichoke is one of the country’s leading creative companies and is a registered charity, funded by Arts Council England. At Artichoke we use art to undermine the mundane and disrupt the everyday, and create a new kind of world that we’d all like to live in. Our previous projects include Royal de Luxe’s The Sultan’s Elephant, which brought an estimated one million people onto the streets of London in 2006; La Machine’s 50- foot high mechanical spider for Liverpool’s Capital of Culture celebrations in 2008; Antony Gormley’s One & Other 100-day long invasion of the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in London in 2009; and Deborah Warner’s commission for the London 2012 Festival, Peace Camp, a nationwide celebration of landscape and poetry, which took place across eight separate sites around the UK; and most recently, Temple by David Best in Derry~Londonderry, attended by more than 60,000 people. Artichoke creates and produces Lumiere, the UK’s largest light festival, which

4 has been staged in the medieval English city of Durham every two years since 2009; and in Derry~Londonderry in as part of the celebrations for City of Culture 2013. It returned to Durham in November 2015 attracting an estimated 200,000 visitors. www.artichoke.uk.com

Mayor of London The Mayor supports a range of events, projects and initiatives aimed at showcasing London as a cultural capital, bringing new life to high streets across the city and attracting tourists and investment. These range from investing in the Fourth Plinth programme to the London Design Festival, London Film Festival and London Fashion Week; investing in London's town centres and high streets through the London Regeneration Fund and the High Street Fund; supporting a wide range of events across the capital, including the ambitious The Streets and Circulate festivals, which took place in the outer boroughs; and developing a vision for aimed at promoting London's smaller and more local cultural in every borough across the capital. www.london.gov.uk/culture.

LUMIERE LONDON FOUNDING PARTNERS Atom Atom is a start-up bank, not yet launched, but was granted its licence by the Bank of England earlier this year. Founded over a year ago and based in Durham, Atom has a growing team of 160 people drawn from across the country, working with partners to bring pioneering technology to Europe for the first time. Atom is building the UK’s first bank designed specifically for digital, offering easy and convenient banking, along with unique and engaging ways to manage money.

Bloomberg Philanthropies Bloomberg Philanthropies’ mission is to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. The organization focuses on five key areas for creating lasting change: public health, environment, education, government innovation and the arts. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of Michael R. Bloomberg’s charitable activities, including his foundation and his personal giving. In 2014, Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed $462 million, and it has a history of supporting creative and innovative public art. In 2014 alone, Bloomberg Philanthropies supported artist Tobias Rehberger’s Dazzle Ship in London as part of 14-18 NOW, WW1 Centenary Art Commissions, and the Liverpool Biennial; We the People, Dahn Vo’s multi-site exhibition in New York City, organised by Public Art Fund; and Doug and Mike Starn’s Big Bambú installation in Jerusalem. In 2015 it launched the Public Art Challenge, encouraging temporary public works of art in cities across the U.S. For more information, please visit www.bloomberg.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat: Bloombergdotorg and Twitter:@BloombergDotOrg.

Heart of London Business Alliance Our role at Heart of London Business Alliance is promote the district to a global audience, ensuring that the area is renowned as a hub for business, education, culture and leisure and remains an integral part of the Capital for people to visit, live, trade and work in. Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Piccadilly and St James’s welcomes over 130 million visitors annually and is home to an eclectic mix of renowned art and theatre institutions, heritage sites and cultural landmarks, as well as a thriving shopping and hospitality scene.

King’s Cross King’s Cross is a critically acclaimed 67 acre, 8 million sq ft development in Central London. The developer, the King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership, is creating a piece of the city, which includes 20 new and refurbished office buildings, nearly 2,000

5 new homes, as well as new shops and restaurants. Aside from the sheer scale, what makes King’s Cross different is the determination to create an interesting place with a varied mix of uses. The area benefits from a lively and diverse arts and events programme that makes use of the world-class public spaces that are being delivered. www.kingscross.co.uk

London & Partners London & Partners is the official promotional company for London and owns and manages VisitLondon.com, the digital home for Lumiere London. We promote London and attract businesses, events, congresses, students and visitors to the capital. Our aims are to build London’s international reputation and to attract investment and visitor spend, which create jobs and growth. London & Partners is a not-for-profit public private partnership, funded by the Mayor of London and our network of commercial partners. www.londonandpartners.com

MAJOR SUPPORTERS The Crown Estate Grange Hotels Grosvenor Great Britain & Ireland Land Rover Regent Street Association Shaftesbury

EVENT SUPPORTERS British Land The David and Claudia Harding Foundation Regent’s Place Transport for London Unusual Services Veolia Westminster City Council

SUPPORTERS Aggreko Almacantar Central Saint Martins Coutts D&D London Embassy of Spain in the United Kingdom The European Commission Representation in the United Kingdom Eurostar - International Rail Service Provider Godfrey Syrett The Government of Flanders Great Portland Estates Green Tomato Hammerson Leathersellers’ Company Charitable Fund Levy Real Estate The Royal Parks St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel London Wellcome Trust

WITH THANKS TO Athenaeum Hotel BAFTA Beaumont Hotel

6 Daniel Peltz Fortnum & Mason House of Illustration The Ritz Mercedes Zóbel

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