i Light Marina Bay has returned since 9 March 2018, with 22 enthralling light art installations and a myriad of activities to light up Marina Bay. This year’s edition of the festival also involves greater participation from the community in the creation of sustainable artworks.
Organised by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) as part of place-making efforts in Marina Bay, the sixth edition of the sustainable light art festival features installations created by artists from Singapore and around the world. Designed with energy-saving lighting and recycled or environmentally-friendly materials, the light art installations reinforce Marina Bay’s position as a sustainable precinct and encourages festival goers and the public to adopt sustainable habits in their daily lives.
Three of the installations were created using used bottles and containers contributed by the community and corporate partners. One of the artworks, Transistable Plastic by Luzinterruptus from Spain, is a large-scale installation created using multiple panels encased with plastic waste. The artwork aims to raise awareness about the amount of waste we generate in our lives. About 20,000 PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles contributed by the public and corporate organisations, including those taken from a plastic bottle collection drive held at The URA Centre in February 2018 were used.
The artists of two other installations have also sourced used bottles from local companies and cafes to be repurposed in their artworks. Milk Bottle Cows, by Singapore-based artist BP Loh, aims to encourage recycling and upcycling through a showcase of life-sized ’cows’ created from some 2,000 plastic milk bottles. Meanwhile, Chandelier of Spirits by Living Spirits from Thailand is a display of suspended glass and plastic coffee bottles, inspired by the morning beverage habits of office workers and symbolising a gathering of Singapore’s workforce.
The festival line-up also features six artworks by students from local institutions, including Nanyang Polytechnic, Nanyang Technological University, Raffles College of Higher Education, the School of the Arts, and LASALLE College of the Arts.
Complementing the showcase of sustainable light art installations is i Light Sustainability, an umbrella of initiatives to encourage festival goers to adopt sustainable habits in their daily lives. For instance, visitors can explore and learn more about the topic of sustainability through a series of talks and workshops. The signature Switch Off, Turn Up campaign, held in conjunction with the festival, continues to see corporate organisations around Marina Bay and beyond switch off non-essential lighting and turn up their air-conditioning temperatures to save energy.
i Light Marina Bay’s sustainability focus will also fit in with the Earth Hour initiative on 24 March, when the light art installations will be switched off for an hour during the annual islandwide lights-out event.
To be held from 9 March to 1 April 2018, i Light Marina Bay is open from 7.30 pm to 11.00 pm daily, with extended hours to 12.00 midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, around the Marina Bay waterfront and Esplanade Park. Admission is free. For more information, visit https://www.ilightmarinabay.sg/.