Leipzig Festival of Lights 2019

Programme Leipzig Festival of Lights 2019

Autumn ’89 – Awakening to democracy

Das Lichtfest Leipzig 2019 feierte am 9. Oktober 2019 30 Jahre Friedliche Revolution

Under the motto “Autumn ’89 – Dawn of Democracy”, people of Leipzig and their guests marked the 9ᵗʰ of October 2019 with the Leipzig Festival of Lights 2019 – for many the emotional highlight of the commemorations in remembrance of the decisive Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig 30 years earlier. Despite the tragic events in Halle and the rainy weather, around 75,000 visitors followed the invitation to set out on foot after the opening of the Leipzig Festival of Lights on Augustusplatz and walk around Leipzig’s inner ring road, experiencing numerous light interventions along the historic demonstration route. Light, image and video material overlaid façades and spaces along the roughly 3.6 km route, while sound collages complemented the visual concept.

Photos all Light Spaces at a glance Programme booklet

Opening Leipzig Festival of Lights 2019 on Augustusplatz

Words of greeting and candles' podium '89

Lichtfest Leipzig 2019: Eröffnung auf dem Augustusplatz mit Grußworten und Kerzenpodest — © Punctum/Stefan Hoyer

The event was opened by Mayor Burkhard Jung, who welcomed as additional speakers the former civil rights activist Kathrin Mahler Walther, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Saxon Minister President Michael Kretschmer, as well as the Mayor of Gdańsk, Aleksandra Dulkiewicz. They all referred to the events in the neighbouring city of Halle, where only a few hours earlier several people had been violently killed, and commemorated the victims with a brief and moving moment of silence.

With particularly touching words, the Leipzig contemporary witness Kathrin Mahler Walther recalled the tense atmosphere on the 9ᵗʰ of October 1989: “How afraid we were back then! The air – stretched to breaking point. And then that evening. There was no shooting. Here in Leipzig, it became the day of decision.”

On Augustusplatz, candles traditionally played the leading role. With 25,000 tealights, visitors formed the glowing inscription “Leipzig 89”. At the main railway station, the installation “Leipzig-Berlin” made of around 1,000 vintage torches fascinated onlookers. The work, which will subsequently be shown in Berlin, was created by the light artist Philippe Morvan from Leipzig’s partner city Lyon.

To mark the 30ᵗʰ anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution, Leipzig dedicated an outstanding programme. Key events on the 9ᵗʰ of October 2019, in addition to the evening Leipzig Festival of Lights, were a ceremonial event in the Gewandhaus featuring the Democracy Speech (speaker: Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier) as well as the traditional prayer for peace in St Nicolas Church.

Light Spaces Leipzig Festival of Lights 2019

In reflection of the Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig of 1989, which literally claimed more and more space along the Ring, six light spaces were created in the run-up to the 9ᵗʰ of October 2019; beginning on Wednesday, 4 September, and then on each subsequent Monday until the 9ᵗʰ of October. The progression of the light thus mirrors the progression of the events of ’89.

The light initially unfolded gradually, Monday by Monday, in squares along the Ring, directed predominantly “into them”, before on the 9ᵗʰ of October it then spanned the entire Ring, transforming it into a light path, a “ring of light”.

Striking demands of the autumn of ’89 formed the themes for the openings of the six light spaces, making the contemporary historical aspects and their roots directly tangible.

The light spaces were also conceived as event spaces. On Mondays they became venues for community projects and performances. Both participatory civic discourse and artistic interventions took place there.