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13 January 2006
Lyon: a cascade of light
Sonepar France
From December 7 to 10, 2005, Lyon’s traditional Festival of Lights* bedazzled three million visitors.
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MAT’Electrique, a founding partner
Founding partners MAT’Electrique, the City of Lyon and EDF have taken part in Lyon’s December 8 Festival of Lights every year since 1999. The 2005 event combined friendliness, encounters, emotions and technological breakthroughs in urban lighting.
MAT’Electrique, a Sonepar Sud-Est subsidiary and a technological showcase and expertise center for lighting solutions, plays a major part in environmental quality and aims to improve the quality of life in Lyon. “The Festival of Lights,” says Sonepar Sud-Est Executive President Dominique Vinay, “is an opportunity to get close to the people of Lyon and the growing number of visitors from every corner of the globe, and to boost their sensitivity to art, creativity as well as fleeting and lasting beauty.”
 Sites transformed by light
Lyon offered visitors a lavishly illuminated tour through the city. From the slopes of La Croix-Rousse to the traboules** and Saint John’s cathedral, they discovered old and contemporary architecture, places of passage and life, transformed by light.
Cascades of light and color tumbled down Fourvière Hill, transformed into three tableaus revealing the mystical and human history of this symbolic site, which turned into a promontory of light. The spellbinding spectacle won the 2005 Trophy of Lights in the “Festival Events” category, winning over 3,000 votes cast by Lyon’s residents. At the Hôtel Dieu, Alain Bénini, Lyon’s architect of Civilian Hospices, and with the participation of MAT’Electrique, dressed the 19th century Amédée Bonnet courtyard in a gown of light. Delimited by four façades serving as lighting supports, the complex formed a cube of light that was gradually revealed by intense successive lighting and then simultaneous lighting on each side. The effect was thrilling! Eighteen kilometers of cables, 900 strings of light measuring 20 meters each and 180,000 points of light covered 2,400 m² of façade. It took eight days to set up this installation, the crowning achievement of six months of planning and design, in particular by MAT’Electrique lighting designer Philippe Losilla.
Thirty thousand lamps
This year’s festival was more participatory and interactive, providing everybody with the opportunity to fully enjoy the event in all the city’s neighborhoods in a festive, sharing spirit. On December 8, Lyon’s residents were asked to purchase and then lay 30,000 lamps on one of Europe’s biggest squares, the Place Bellecour, to form a fresco in the shape of the Little Prince, with proceeds going to the Petit Monde*** organization.
* The Festival of Lights is deeply rooted in the history of Lyon, which is said to have been under the Virgin Mary’s protection for two centuries. On December 8, 1852, the city’s population spontaneously joined in the inauguration of the Holy Virgin’s statue on Fourvière Hill overlooking Lyon by putting lights in their windows. The festival therefore has a religious origin, but over the years it has become a major popular and artistic event.
**Traboules are corridors that cross one or more buildings to connect streets to each other, letting people move from house to house without using the streets.
*** Since 1997, Le Petit Monde, a non-profit charitable organization, has been devoted to improving the lives of hospitalized children and making their stays more pleasant. |
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