Light Unites Us

Answers to questions from SVĚTLO magazine, May 2025.

Your stories have been told in many towns and cities in the Czech Republic and around the world. Are there differences in how lights and their stories are perceived in different latitudes or cultural areas?

Last year confirmed some of our reflections, and, almost proverbially, it was as if our paths had led us from Košice to the Atlantic and from Dublin to the Adriatic Sea – behind every door there seemed to be another door waiting to be opened. We gathered experience in our parks, trails, towns and cities and department stores. It corresponds to the attendance of roughly 24 sold-out O2 arenas, that is, around half a million visitors, without including in that figure the towns and cities, Old Town Square in Prague, dozens of shopping centres, and also trams, buses and boats. Thanks to social media and public interest in general, we have a fairly precise idea of how our light journeys are perceived. Some circumstances are similar regardless of place; in some cases we have noticed cultural differences. The figure of Sisi is so important and so adored by the Hungarians that the exhibition in Gödöllő aroused great interest from local and national media. Members of the noble family followed the exhibition, and visitors came from abroad. We observed similarly great attention in Komárno and some other towns.

So how is it possible for lights to unite us?

I would like to expand on the thought with which I opened our festive launches, or sometimes offered as a wish even in public space. Incidentally, it occurred to me on my way from Old Town Square. Light has several meanings on different levels. On the philosophical level it represents a symbol of life and of creation; in European thought, since Plato's allegory, light has become a synonym for rationality, measure, proportion… In a certain sense we are also made of light, and the principle of the duality of light and darkness runs through many cultures, until we arrive at its physical properties and its practical uses – for protection and safety, but also in design and as an architectural element. And it seems to me that these levels of perception need not exclude one another. In other words, I would very much like to use light as a cornerstone in our field of industrial design – in a cultivated, technically correct way, with the possibility not only of illuminating and telling stories, but of connecting through light stories. We are already partly creating a kind of family of light ideas, stories and dramaturgies, but I would like to make our connecting even more of a theme, because light unites us.

How will this year's stories differ, and how will they unite us?

This year we are preparing for Žluté lázně in Prague (the Yellow Baths) an exhibition called "Heart of Europe", based on the Greek myths in which the beautiful Europa is abducted by Zeus, transformed into a white bull, to the shores of Crete. The individual hearts of the continent form the real heart of Europe, whose rhythm is given not only geographically but by shared values. With the exhibition and the interactive trail we would like to remind people of what unites us Europeans. Of course, not only by depicting the most important European landmarks, but also through the way of telling the story and other accompanying interactions. We would also like to place symbolically in our luminous Europe in Prague the places where we tell our stories. Whether in the Czech Republic or in Europe; we hold exhibitions in Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Croatia, France, Ireland… With this intention we would like to connect through the idea of Europeanness and try to spread some of the fundamental milestones of European traditions. After last year's successful exhibition about Sisi at the Hungarian palace of Gödöllő, other places in Austria have already shown interest. In our shared history there are moments whose consequences shape our present. In an entertaining and pleasant form we can educate a little.

Can light unite those who perceive it, visitors, and also representatives of the professional public?

Besides the fairly considerable growth of our family of light parks, we are also experiencing, in a certain sense, a further perception of this connecting. I myself experienced a very beautiful, authentic atmosphere at the opening of one of our several trails in the Treetops, when in a certain sense we were connected by the event itself, and then I sensed the connection among the visitors. People share joy and have the opportunity of a certain shared experience in a transformed public space. Lights bring a new dimension to a space – not only through their design, but also through the opportunity of an evening visit and night-time views. Very discreetly, we are extending community space towards further life. On the other hand, I would like to explain that we observe certain rules and try to minimise light pollution, which is generally great for a long time after we end our evening operation. The short period of the exhibitions, with all those social, experiential, educational, tourist and other contributions, outweighs it with its benefits. And indirectly, too, for example through the greater attractiveness of the place and the development of life, culture and so on. Today we already know that we are observing a rise in visits to cultural monuments even in summer, especially castles and chateaux. One always has to judge things in context and in connection with one another – in short, in an enlightened way. Incidentally, that is exactly our story of light.