Spotlight Festival 2023 in Bucharest this weekend

Spotlight Festival 2023 runs over the weekend of April 21-23 from 8pm to 11pm. This year’s Spotlight route starts from the intersection of Calea Victoriei with Piața Amzei street and continues along it to Cercul Militar, with a final stop in the Old Center, at ARCUB – Hanul Gabroveni.

Having reached its seventh edition, the open-air visual art festival Spotlight has prepared, for the weekend of April 21-23, 2023, a new series of multimedia experiences in established locations and premiere locations on Calea Victoriei and at ARCUB – Gabroveni Inn.

The event that awaits, again this year, over 100,000 participants, Spotlight Festival is a project organized by the Capital City Hall, through ARCUB – the Cultural Centre of the Municipality of Bucharest, together with the Directorate of Culture, Education, Tourism, with the support of MONUMENT for – the General Directorate of Landscape Architecture and Public Forum Monuments.

Since 2023, Spotlight Festival is a member of the largest international network of light festivals – The International Light Festivals Organization, thus connecting Bucharest with the largest cities in the world that host spectacular new media events in the public space.

SPOTLIGHT theme– Geometry of The City

This year’s Spotlight edition is called Geometry of the City and aims to transform the geometry of the city through three days of light, colour and sound shows. Thus, between April 21 and 23, famous buildings in Bucharest come to life through video mapping, iconic places are populated by multimedia installations, and the city’s statues are animated by light art projections.

Premieres at SPOTLIGHT #7

For the first time at Spotlight, the InterContinental Athénée Palace Bucharest Hotel is included in the festival circuit with a very large light projection, bearing the signature of one of the most important contemporary artists in Romania, Roman Tolici. Also, the Spotlight map is expanding, this year, with an installation in the Historic Center, on the façade of the Gabroveni Inn, the headquarters of the Cultural Center of the City of Bucharest – ARCUB.

It is, moreover, for the first time that the Spotlight program includes works made by famous names of contemporary art from Romania alongside Romanian street art artists, illustrators, and sculptors, who transform iconic places in Bucharest together with new media pioneers from France, Hungary and Austria.

Another new element in this year’s edition of the festival is the choral music included in the Spotlight program as an element of inspiration for a video mapping show. Spotlight Festival 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the National Chamber Choir “Madrigal – Marin Constantin” with a video mapping session on the façade of the Odeon Theatre, made by Mindscape Studio after a musical fragment performed by the famous vocal ensemble.

SPOTLIGHT MAP # 7

During the weekend of April 21-23, 2023, Spotlight invites the public to explore a city reinvented by new media art through dozens of light-art installations and projections on Calea Victoriei and at ARCUB – Gabroveni Inn. From the statue of Mihai Eminescu in the Athenaeum park transformed into a visual game, to the Palace of Telephones scaled by illustrated characters, to the Odeon Theatre turned into a playground or the Kretzulescu park turned into a flower garden of light, Spotlight – Geometry of the City prepared for the people of Bucharest, a spectacular visual adventure. This year’s Spotlight route starts from the intersection of Calea Victoriei with Piaţa Amzei street and continues along it to the Military Circle, with a final stop in the Historical Center, at ARCUB – Gabroveni Inn.

SPOTLIGHT program

The Spotlight program starts every day of the festival at 19.30 and ends at 23.00. Details about the program and the installations participating in Spotlight 2023 will be available soon on arcub.ro and spotlightfestival.ro.

“Living Statues” at SPOTLIGHT

For the second time in a row, MONUMENT for – General Directorate of Landscape Architecture and Public Monuments joins the Spotlight Festival and animates a series of statues on Calea Victoriei through video mapping shows created by Les Ateliers Nomad as part of the “Living Statues” program, a campaign initiated by MONUMENT for, which aims to enhance emblematic monuments of the city through a series of artistic reactivations.

About Spotlight – Bucharest International Light Festival

Spotlight – Bucharest International Light Festival has reached its seventh edition and is one of the Bucharest events that annually gathers over 150,000 spectators in three days of the festival.

Dozens of art works, installations, architectural lighting systems and video-mapping from Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Finland, the Czech Republic, Poland, France, Austria, and Romania transform iconic buildings in Bucharest such as the Central University Library, the National Art Museum of Romania, Odeon Theatre, National Military Circle, CEC Palace.

Inaugurated in 2016 in the context of the International Year of Light, Spotlight has, over time, brought together hundreds of Romanian and international artists and enjoyed collaborations with the most prestigious profile festivals in Europe (Fête des Lumières – Ville de Lyon, Berlin Lights Festival, Signal Festival in Prague). Since this year, Spotlight is a member of ILO, the largest international network of light festivals – The International Light Festivals Organization.

60 years of Madrigal in 60 seconds at Spotlight Festival 2023

The “Madrigal – Marin Constantin” National Chamber Choir brings, for the first time, choral music to the Spotlight Festival 2023. The Madrigal Choir presents at the Spotlight Festival video mapping sessions on the facade of the Odeon Theater in Bucharest, made by Mindscape Studio, on the song “Sârba on the chair” by Grigoraș Dinicu in the arrangement of Alexandru Pașcanu.

The event performed by the Madrigal Choir as part of the Spotlight Festival 2023 is part of the “MADRIGAL 60” anniversary program, which includes an extensive series of over 30 special projects, which will take place throughout the year. The program marks 60 years of uninterrupted activity, excellence in music and diplomacy through culture for the Madrigal Choir, which has become a symbol of national artistic constancy, but also of Romania’s cultural relevance and image in the world.