Singapore holds third edition of sustainable light art festival in Marina Bay

A total of 28 environmentally sustainable light art installations are lightened up in the iconic waterfront public space around Singapore's Marina Bay on Friday, commencing more than three-week-long festival aiming at promoting ideas of sustainability and environment protection. The festival, named "i Light Marina Bay 2014", was the third edition of the biennial event. It will be open to the public for free from March 7 to 30, with a climax to the annual event of " Earth Hour" later this month. The 28 light art installations this year are brought by both Singaporean artists and other artists all round the world, from Chinese mainland, China's Taiwan as well as the U.S., Canada and France, etc. "These 28 art installations are aimed at engaging the public, through very meaningful art installations, with the objective of inspiring, as well as provoking individuals and the general public, to be conscious of sustainability and environment conservation," said Jason Chen, organizer of the festival and also director of place management in Singapore's Urban Redevelopment Authority. Complementary programs such as carnivals, free outdoor concerts, guided tours and photography competition will also be held during the festival. The organizers said they will further reinforce the message of sustainability by reaching out to properties and developments that are both in and outside Marina Bay to switch off non-essential lighting, as well as office equipments, and at the same time turn up the temperature for air-conditioning. One of the light art installations, known as "JouJou-Ours", is a combination of five huge teddy bears, with colorful appearance and soft skin. It encourages all to come close and embrace these light installations, and with these close physical interactions, the embedded lights will create a magical kaleidoscoped of colours. "I got the inspiration from my toy teddy bear. I want to show love and welcome everybody coming here to recall their own memories of their childhood," said Uno Lai, the designer of " JouJou-Ours", who was born in China's Taiwan and had developed his lighting design businesses in Chinese mainland. Another outstanding installation is named "Cloud", which is made of thousands of new and recycled energy-efficient bulbs. The installation invites strangers to come together beneath a dazzling rain cloud and play. By pulling on a switch, the viewer is able to trigger a quantifiable shift within "cloud", visually highlighting the power of an individual's ability to impact progress and achieve significant change. The festival also promotes environmentally-responsible behavior for a sustainable future by encouraging artists to use recyclable materials and adopt energy-efficient lighting technology in the creation of their light art installations. The last edition of the festival was held in 2012, attracting over 560,000 visitors, according to local report.