Urban Nocturnes a view of lyon's fête des lumières

participation residences partnership Claire Peillod

Between 2002 and 2004 the Fête des Lumières, Lyon's «8 December»

festival, took on a new challenge, namely that of reinforcing

its growing theatrical, touristic and popular dimensions, while at the

same time enhancing its artistic quality and promoting civic values :

collective identity, the sharing of public space in a spirit of celebration,

and, in some parts of the city, the renewal of social bonds. The

intention was that it should be an inclusive rather than an exclusive

occasion, and that it should connect up long-term, in-depth work with

its relatively fleeting duration. Contemporary art and theatre, but also

applied disciplines such as lighting and landscape design, and the

different aspects of urbanism, are rich in participative problematics.

And artists are often socially committed individuals, notably in terms

of their actions in public spaces. These three successive Fêtes des

Lumières featured works whose common points were light, urban

space and the recruitment of the spectators as protagonists. Participative

or interactive, they marked the passage from «Festival» to

«Fête», and from contemplation to the complex co-presence of the

artist and the public. Claire Peillod is a former independent exhibition

curator and consultant in public art. She was the artistic director of

the Fête des Lumières up to December 2004. She also created Lyon's

BF15 art centre to focus on the problematics of the artist's function in

society, and was its director between 2000 and 2004. She is now the

head of the Ecole Supérieure d'Art et de Design in Reims.