Signal Festival to dazzle Kampa Park on International Day of Light

To mark the International Day of Light, organizers of Signal Festival will light up parts of Kampa Park in the center of Prague tonight and tomorrow from 8 p.m. to midnight. In collaboration with the ELI Beamlines international laser research center, the festival will play a “light symphony” displayed on the treetops of Kampa Park.

Czech visual artist Jan Hladil, who is behind the light-based artwork, has previously presented his audiovisual works at the DOX Contemporary Art Center, National Gallery Prague, and Prague City Gallery.

The display consists of two laser projectors and convex mirrors that resemble a “monolithic structure.” The laser installation by Hladil commemorates the 63 years that have passed since May 16, 1960, when the American physicist and engineer Theodore Maiman successfully launched the world's first-ever laser.

The theme of tonight’s display is ecosystems, which will also be a part of the upcoming Signal Festival that takes place in October 2023. That event will focus on machine vision, big data, and artificial intelligence. It will also present interactive game formats.

"Nature, technology, society, culture: all these together form the ecosystems in which we live. We will explore our ecosystems through the prism of works of art," says Pavel Mrkus, who is also the author of the new three-year curatorial concept of the Signal Festival.