Spirit - Chinese Spring Lantern Festival
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Friday 22 Feb to Sunday 9 March 2008
SPIRIT
As the skies turned dark over the Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh the magnificent glasshouses came to life in the most enchanting and unusual way. Taking on a whole new appearance the glasshouses were illuminated in celebration of Spirit, Scotland’s first ever Chinese Spring Lantern Festival.
NVA invited their viewers to be part of this unique experience by walking through the glasshouses by night to see the magical beauty of this amazing festival of light and sound. NVA, in collaboration with three artists; Kimho Ip, composer and musician, Phil Supple, lighting director and James Johnson, lead designer, worked together to create a unique atmospheric world created in each glasshouse.
Kimho Ip took the dulcimer to new levels as his composed his music through stretched and mutating his sounds to create a beautifully eerie piece of contemporary music. Phil Supple worked with the natural architecture of the Victorian glasshouses to manipulate the light in each space to create subtly moving and edgy experience. James Johnson designed everything from large scale illuminated lily pads, hanging rows of lanterns to large scale hanging Chinese symbols.
Together the creative team produced an exquisite illuminated journey through the lush Glasshouses creating a subtle and entrancing celebration of the magical form of lanterns, the beauty of Chinese plants, and an exploration of the botanical links between Scotland and China.
NVA was commissioned by RBGE to produce Spirit, which was the Scottish Government’s launch event for China Now in Scotland, a year long programme of events exploring the ancient and modern links between our two countries. This extremely successful production ran for three consecutive weekends, and was extended by two extra days due to audience demand.
“Lantern festival was wonderful because of its beauty – the lighting highlighting the flowers. Dreamlike.” Anonymous
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Sponsors
- Spirit - Chinese Spring Lantern Festival Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
- HALF LIFE Kilmartin Glen, Argyll
- Glow Newcastle, Gateshead’s Festival of Light
- Radiance Glasgow Festival of Light 05
- The Storr: Unfolding Landscape The Old Man of Storr, Trotternish, Skye
- The Hidden Gardens Tramway Arts Centre, East Pollokshields
- Fall From Light Burns And A’That Festival
- Glasgow Lighting Initiatives Long term lighting projects, Glasgow
- The Gimmick The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh International Festival
- The Path Glen Lyon, Perthshire
- Grand Central Grand Central Hotel, Central Station, Glasgow
- Expo ’98 – National Day for Britain Lisbon, Portugal
- The Secret Sign Finnich Glen, Drymen
- Virtual World Orchestra Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow
- Pain Touring Theatre Production
- Stormy Waters Meadowside Granary, Glasgow
- The Silent Twins The Old Partick Police Station, Glasgow
- Soundworks The Arches, Glasgow
- Sabotage The Tramway, Glasgow
- The Soul Machine Dowanhill Church, Glasgow
- The Second Coming St Rollox Locomotive Works, Glasgow
- Beltane Fire Festival Carlton Hill, Edinburgh