Eindhoven has been known as the City of Light for decades, the origin of which rests with the start of the "Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken" in this city. This started with a glow-lamp and resulted in all kinds of modern applications. Durability stands foremost. Light technology offers more and more new possibilities to use energy more economically.
Also the our realization that by cherishing the darkness to utilize light to the full, is growing stronger. To underline this the city became "Friend of the Night" this summer.
Eindhoven sees renewal as the leading thread and you can get acquainted with that in all varieties and sizes during this Light Festival.
You must realize that this will only be a foretaste for the Light Festival 2007 and that many organisations and companies have joined hands to realize this festival for you as visitor.
Be amazed, be inspired, but above all, become one with the overwhelming creations which you are going to see.

Alexander B. Sakkers

Mayor of Eindhoven

City Dynamiek, also responsible for the city's marketing and events, enthusiastically supports this initiative as organiser.
City Dynamiek took the initiative to organise Holland's first international light festival in cooperation with various enterprises and the municipality of Eindhoven.
We are proud that this initiative is widely supported within the city. Apart from the light festival, many private initiatives are taking place in the city, and they give people the opportunity to see and experience even more.
You are heartily invited to visit the Glow light festival and all other activities and exhibitions. We hope it will be an inspiring experience!

Harry Roumen

Leader of the board, City Dynamiek Eindhoven

Light defines visibility and invisibilty, it offers awareness as well as irrelevance, it shapes form, texture and color in the human eye and mind. The knowledge about the sun (as the biggest natural light source) and the stars allows positioning in geography and in time. Through its profound relationship with time light represents as well the continuous changes which life is based on.

Light as the central medium of human perception has physical and philosophical relevanz in the development of human culture. Natural light does form the human access to the material world and enlightment is a central goal in all its spiritual understandings, the application of artificial light does question the material world, its shapes and colors as much as it offers different visual options than daylight.

Ever since artists, architects and designers have been confronted with the phenomena of natural light as much as the various ways artifical light - like light bulbs, luminous substances, neon tubes and/or LEDs - it has been regarded as outstanding and essential. The options of information through projection and reflection as well as the non-visibleness of light itself are qualities which artists, architects and designers refer to in different ways.

Ever since the introduction of public lighting the idea of the use of artificial light in urban space has been changed. Besides visibilty, safety and orientation attraction and attention are of new relevance. Instead of daylight compensation the protection of the natural nightlight and the development of a recognizable night appearance without destorying the experience of nocturnal darkness are among the contemporary tasks of lighting design.

“Glow – Forum of Light in Art and Architecture” is an open platform for the art-, architectural- and designworks embodieing the reflected use of light. The cityspace turns into a temporary studio, a research and production laboratory and makes use of public space as an exhibition floor. In the play between light, time, space and the observers, the borders of material and virtuel reality do open up.

The installations of the 2006 edition of “Glow 2006” are an option to deepen the understanding of light and the process of seeing. They are an invitation to develop a deeper understanding of light as a phenomena, to rediscover the processes of perception, interpretation and insight, to experiment and to experience the outstanding potenial of light. The installations are not spectacular in the amount of light(s) they use but in the opportunities of experiement and experience. They reveal the conceptual as much as the aesthetical aspects of the perception of light.

All installations are located along the riverbanks of the Dommel, throughout the Stadswandelpark and in green neighbourhoods. In the daytime these are great recreation areas in the center of the city, in the nighttime they dissappear into the dark and with it their beauty and relevance for urban life. The light of the art and design installations offers a reason to visitors to come across an area what is usually spared in the nighttime. They question the daytime appearances as much as the offer new points of view and with it new options of new urban functions and use. For the artists, architects and designers the Dommelsbanks and public parcs do offer a great starting point to develop their own understanding of Eindhoven als City of Light.

Our thanks go to all of you who did support the idea of developing a new opportunity to discover potential and capacities in order to care for light as an essential part of a sustainable development.