Light Installations at the Stavros Niarchos Park

For the eighth year in a row, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center is shedding ample light on the holidays, inviting its visitors to a unique phantasmagoria. Six spectacular light installations by eminent international and Greek artists have been curated this year on the theme Dreamy Dreams: Dreamy Landscapes of the Festival of Light Installations presented at Stavros Niarchos Park from 1 December 2024 to 7 January 2025.



Large-scale Light Installations, visible from a distance, created for public space, engage in a dynamic conversation with the Park and offer visitors a unique, impressive experience, inviting them to interact and capture this whimsical experience.

The artistic choices of this year’s program include: the duo of Vendel & de Wolf and the Stichting Barstow collective from the Netherlands, as well as the Squidsoup team from the UK, all from the Light Art Collection (Netherlands); Hans E. Madsen and Frederik D. Hougs from the Wireframe Public Art Agency (Canada); and the Greek entries Everything Works and the duo Eleni Maragaki – George Nikas.

Light Installations

WAVE
Great Lawn
Squidsoup (United Kingdom)
Light Art Collection (Netherlands)

The Wave consists of some five hundred individual suspended light orbs, points of presence brought to life through light and sound. Together they create a resonant and dynamic audiovisual experience — a sustaining soundscape within which each orb resonates in changing harmonies to create an entrancing experience.
 
ERROR
Pine Grove
Vendel & de Wolf (Netherlands)
Light Art Collection (Netherlands)

Typical in all of Vendel & de Wolf’s work is their use of materials: objects such as lightbulbs, marbles, spoons, cardboard, and styrofoam, are transformed into something completely unique that resembles the natural forms of the universe. In Vendel & de Wolf’s installations, each fixture has an onboard chip that controls its slightest movement.

MOONBURN
Water Jets
Barstow Foundation (Netherlands)
Light Art Collection (Netherlands)

Has the moon fallen from the sky? Everyone understands that Moonburn is “just” a large balloon that has been decorated with fluorescent paint. Although considerably smaller than the actual moon — 6 meters in diameter, as compared to 3,475 kilometers — the balloon appears larger.

PRESSURE
Dome
Hans E. Madsen and Frederik D. Hougs (Denmark)
Wireframe Public Art Agency (Canada)

The work Pressure by Madsen and Hougs is a big doodle of light, made of a transparent tube with pixel-controlled LED inside. Reminiscent of the human brain, the work aims to illustrate the complexity of the human thought process.

EFCHI [wish]
Planted Roofs
EVERYTHING Works (Greece)

The SNFCC’s Planted Roofs are filled with bright five-pointed stars, a familiar Christmas motif, which, however, traces its roots to antiquity, having been used by many different cultures, always marking positive values such as wisdom and hope. Also familiar to all of us is the faith that the wish we make when we see a falling star will come true. The shape of each star is actually deconstructed, broken into smaller pieces. It is only completed when the viewer moves to the right spot.

POMPE [procession]
Stavros Niarchos Park Entrance from Doiranis and Evripidou streets (Diagonal)
Eleni Maragaki & George Nikas (Greece)

A field of more than 100 LED columns of different typologies welcomes visitors who enter Stavros Niarchos Park from the diagonal path leading to the Great Lawn. The work aims to create a visual event, in which visitors get to actively participate, forming part of a silent, luminous path towards uplift. The columns of light evoke the human figure in the context of a ritual, while the straight, absolute alignment and steep incline of the path intensify this feeling.