Lumiere light festival, a biannual event produced by Artichoke Trust was brought to London in 2016 for the first time, with its second edition in 2018.
As part of the festival’s learning and participation programme, a participatory installation called ‘Bottle Festoon‘ (originally a concept of the artist Thadian Pillai) was sponsored by Veolia, London. The idea of making the installation was to invite participation from 6 outer boroughs of London – Redbridge, Sutton, Greenwich, Croydon, Lambeth and Walthamstow. The project was supported by the Mayor of London as a way to increase the footprint of the festival in far off zones from Central London, and for communities to feel ownership even if they physically couldn’t attend the festival.
As the project manager of this installation, Geetanjali facilitated Artists appointed for each of the boroughs to conduct workshops in 17 schools where 400 school children took part of year 4, 5 and 6. The workshops were successful in engaging 500 community participants across 24 community groups though a mixture of public drop in sessions, elderly groups, office staff, theatre groups, mental health charity service users, across all ages in 6 London Outer Boroughs. These workshops were suitable for all ages and children from 8+, which became a fantastic outing for the family, and a gave a chance to meet new people from the community.
The initiative was able to produce 200 Chandeliers made from 6000 plastic bottles collected from a recycling waste unit of a prison. Geetanjali also coordinated the installation of these chandeliers at the festival, their storage post the festival for them to be displayed for a month post the festival in community centres/ local libraries located in boroughs where they were created.
As part of the same festival, Geetanjali was also responsible in coordinating the induction of participants, planning and execution of the flashmob piece by Cirque Bijou travelling to London for the first time. She was also the event manager on ground to guide the choreographers in multiple locations across Central London.
Top Photography By : Matthew Andrews
Dreamwoven Collective 