The lighting design of Architecture students from La Salle-URL at Frederic Marès Museum

The architecture students’ tandem of La Salle-URL formed by Sergi Sauras and Pau Garrofé made the proposal in light intervention for Llum Festival BCN 2017, named 'Praise of Shadows' which can be seen between days 10 and 12 February in the courtyard of the Frederic Marès Museum. This festival fills with light courtyards and squares of Ciutat Vella for three days, with 24 light installations created by schools and design professionals. Sauras and Garrofé proposal is a tribute to the eponymous work of the Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki, who claimed that beauty is not in the objects but in the game of shadows and lights that they produce. That’s why the project goes beyond a luminous object. An interactive experience in which people are the protagonists of a shadow theatre in constant motion is proposed. To achieve this effect, they propose a simple structure of steel cord from where it will hang a semi-transparent fabric, levitating a few centimetres from the ground. The water source will become a light source, illuminating the courtyard from the centre and projecting the shadows of visitors against the stone walls. The authors agree: "In short, it is a praise to the curiosity of all those who, in front of a glowing light, have played their own shadow theatre". Festival Llum BCN has proposed different open routes so that public can visit various facilities around the most emblematic patios of Ciutat Vella. In this case, the courtyard of the Frederic Marès Museum where there will be the 'Praise of Shadow' experience is framed in the route 2 called Catedral - Mar, and it will be open on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 from 18.30 to 24h, and Sunday 12 from 18.30 to 23h. Students of the School of Architecture of La Salle-URL also participated in the previous edition of the festival with an original project called 'Metro and a half' with which they won the second prize. The project merged lights and colours and was located in the Picasso Museum of Barcelona.