Open light in private spaces is the title of the world's first Biennale for International Light Art, which will take place in the eastern Ruhr metropolis in the context of the European Capital of Culture and, more in particular, of the Licht RUHR.2010 event. Open light in private spaces is an exhibition project that sets out to present works of art by internationally renowned artists in 60 private spaces of inhabitants of the cities of Bergkamen, Bönen, Fröndenberg/Ruhr, Hamm, Lünen and Unna. Apart from the concrete examination of current and historic hybrid structures and peculiarities of the urban and rural spaces, the project refers to the individual spaces and the persons living or working in them. It includes artists who use light as basic material respectively as component or carrier of meaning for complex issues with regard to past and present, social and individual processes and phenomena, who deal reflectively with cultural differences, with political, medial and economic monopolisation or with private people's and society's culture of remembrance. References to history of architecture and design are as well part of the project as everyday culture, not excluding purely personal conditions of working and living. The first Biennale for International Light Art invites to a dialogue with the people of a region that is characterized by structural change, and opens up avenues of thought and spaces for personal experience where comprehension and treatment of light art, publicness and privateness are touched. It refers explicitly to the 1986 exhibition directed by Jan Hoet in Gent, entitled Chambres d'amis, where citizens of Gent opened their apartments and houses for artistic interventions and made them accessible to a large public. Jan Hoet is honorary president of this Biennale, whilst the artistic curator is Mattias Wagner K. The Biennale for International Light Art was conceived as an exhibition of contemporary art that is to take place every two years, from 2010 onwards, in North Rhine-Westphalia. Centring on light as a medium, the Biennale's profile will include a rotational change of its focal theme and venue, thus permitting the respective artistic directors and invited artists to deal topically with global developments as well as political, economic, social and cultural environments in the federal state of NRW.
Licht RUHR.2010 shows outstanding existing light works as well as light projects that were created especially for the European capital of culture and will mark the metropolis Ruhr on Europe’s map of light for a long time. Light was and is a decisive factor in the transformation process from the old industrial Ruhr region to the modern metropolis Ruhr. Prominent artists and designers used the technical possibilities of light to create signs of change, often visible from afar, in this metropolis with its versatile town and country spaces. Apart from the world’s first museum of light art, the Zentrum für Internationale Lichtkunst in Unna, lasting light-art works in public spaces create a particular stir, such as Dan Flavin’s works at the Rheinelbe park of sciences or the Yellow Markers in Bönen and Kamp-Lintfort, both by Mischa Kuball, or the spectacular illuminations Monochromatic red and blue by Speirs and Major at the Kokerei Zollverein and the presentation by Jonathan Park at the Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord. These existing works and numerous future projects such as the light festival Ruhrlights: Twilight Zone in Ruhrtal, the LichtKunstRaum sanktreinoldi in Dortmund and the first Biennale for International Light Art – Open light in private spaces – will mark the metropolis Ruhr on Europe’s map of light for a long time.
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