prague signal festival 2023 lights up night with digital installations

autumn sky illuminates at Prague’s Signal Festival 2023

As September gives way to October, the summer daylight hours are exchanged for long fall nights and the perfect dark canvas for Prague’s Signal Festival 2023 emerges. From October 12th to 15th, the digital and creative culture event invites both international and Czech artists to paint the evening sky with light. In the past, the festival has exhibited artists such as Refik Anadol, Joanie Lemercier, Zachary Lieberman, Maxim Velčovský, Janet Echelman, SOFTlab and many more. With its 11th edition, this autumn event returns to rejuvenate public spaces with light design, visual and digital art, artificial intelligence, and conceptual art, all while reinvigorating the historical art and architecture of Prague.

designboom highlights a few of the installations that lit up the 2023 edition of the event!

from October 12th to 15th, Signal Festival invites both international and Czech artists to participate in its digital art event

photos: (above) Tomáš Slavík, ‘Echo’ by Flightgraf (banner) Tomáš Slavík, ‘Luminary Glyphs’ by András László Nagy

The Prague-based festival, by studio Signal Creative (see here), has become one of the largest producers of contemporary art in the Czech Republic. Its primary focus centers on public spaces and collaborative efforts with art and technology institutions, all aimed at bridging the gap between art and its viewers. A key strategy involves supporting emerging Czech artists and contributing to the creation of more than seventy original Signal Festival installations.

the Prague-based festival, by studio Signal Creative, has become one of the largest producers of contemporary art in the Czech Republic

photo: Vojtěch Veškrna

introducing the ‘ecosystems’ multi-year project

In early 2023, Signal Festival unveiled a three-year curatorial concept known as ‘Ecosystems.’ The inaugural chapter of this concept, titled ‘Ecosystems 01: Explore!,’ featured a total of 20 illuminating installations. Together with a gallery zone, the festival enriched the experience with three satellite installations, which enlivened existing permanent works by Jiří Příhoda (VISTA MARS), Federico Díaz (Concrete Layers), and Zdeněk Sýkora (Tiling of the ventilation towers of the Letenský tunnel) through special audiovisual projections during the event.

the theme for the event’s 11th edition is ‘Ecosystems 01: Explore!’

photo: Vojtěch Veškrna, ‘Horizon’ by Playmodes

exploration through technology

‘Horizon’ and ‘FLUX 2023’ both play with digital medium to boldly fill, and negotiate with, the physical space. Spanish studio Playmodes presented ‘Horizon,’ the biggest work of 2023’s Signal Festival. In this immersive installation, light, sound, space, and perspective meet in a single imaginary disappearing point, taking viewers on a journey that transcends the boundaries of the physical world. ‘FLUX 2023’ by Studio Ksawery Komputery created custom code and hardware to create this towering sculpture. The vertical cylindrical shape of the object, four high-speed cameras, and an eight-channel sound system produce a powerful immersive experience that reveals the hidden algorithms.

Canadian-Mexican artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer creates a live image of spectators’ temperatures in piece ‘Thermal Drift’

photo: Vojtěch Veškrna

While some artists’ works are more architectural, others become a hub for performance and participation. Canadian-Mexican artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer presented the interactive projection, ‘Thermal Drift’. By creating a live image of spectators’ temperatures, Lozano-Hemmer creates a unique image on the spot. In showcasing how heat reveals human existence, the artist makes reference to the use of technologies that are usually associated with the police or the military. On stage, Signal Festival has continued 2022’s cooperation with the multi-genre theater Laterna magika, which is part of the National Theatre. The company presented a sound installation by Michal Rataj, Jan Trojan, and Dragan Stojčevski, accompanied by a live performance in the space of St. Salvator Church

Jan Kaláb’s sculptural installation ‘Irideus Bulla’ utilizes the structure of geometric abstraction

photo: Viktor Schwing

At the event, art and technology is merely the starting point for exploring other scientific realms like arithmetic and the natural world. Jan Kaláb’s sculptural installation, titled ‘Irideus Bulla’, utilizes the structure of geometric abstraction, combined with Petr Kaláb’s musical background, to create an echoing, glowing sculpture. ‘The Echo project’ by the Japanese studio Flightgraf was created especially for Signal Festival 2023. Nature, environment, human connection with invisible yet vital natural processes: all these themes formed the basis of the projection. Inspired by phytoplankton, which absorbs carbon dioxide and helps life in the sea and on land, the projection moved and swirled over surfaces at Karlínské Square.

Join the next celebration of light at Signal Festival 2024, from October 10th to 13th in Prague, Czech Republic.

in the past, the festival has exhibited artists such as Refik Anadol, Joanie Lemercier, and Zachary Lieberman