DIS-PATCH Festival of cutting-edge music and related art invites you to experience
RGB CITY
an interactive light/sound installation by LUST (The Hague, Holland)
June 20th + 21st / 9 - 12 PM / Student's Square, Belgrade, Serbia
June 18th / 7 PM / LUST: lecture and presentation / Cultural Center Rex
RGB CITY is an interactive light/sound installation of impressive proportions, spread over a building site in the central area of Student's Square. A new landmark for Belgrade. A building that seems to be alive, each room filled with lights whose movement and color are constantly in flux.
Following a string of events in the first half of 2009, the year in which the Belgradeyard Sound System Collective is celebrating its first 10 years of musical and cultural activism on the cultural maps of Belgrade/Serbia, Europe and beyond, on June 20th and 21st the Dis-patch Festival is presenting a very special project on the location of Student's Square in Belgrade. As a perfect lead into the 8th festival edition - which will be held at various location in Belgrade in late October and early November - Dis-patch will present its first public space project, a site-specific commission by the Dutch-based design-studio LUST.
Studio LUST is one of the leading graphic design studios in Holland, with numerous projects realized in the US, Europe and all the way to China. Besides being well known as graphic designers, with features in many contemporary design books, magazines and galleries, LUST have been designing many public space interventions centered around light, projections and sound shown at TodaysArt Festival in The Hague, the highlight being a simulation of an airport rundown in the very central pedestrian area of the city. The project taking place in Belgrade is a continuation of the collaboration between Dis-patch and TodaysArt, developed through the emerging global network of festivals - ICAS.
On the 20th and 21st of June a large-scale interactive light installation will be installed in a building at Student's Square. Networked robolights (computerized spinning lights often seen in clubs) will be placed in each room of the building. The intensity, color, and state of each light are controlled by a central computer, effectively turning each room into a pixel of a very low-res color TV. The flexibility of the lights allows for the building and its three-dimensional physicality to be highlighted in a spectacular way. The spinning and flashing robolights will turn the building into a swinging and swaying beacon for the city controlled directly by user interaction via a touch screen mounted on the square, transforming Belgrade from "White City" - to RGB City. The sonic aspect will be contributed by the Belgrade-based sound designer Goran Simonoski. This a rare chance for Belgrade residents to directly (re)imagine their surrounding architecture and view it as an organic, evolving and ever-changing environment.
Besides the installations itself, which will be running on two nights, prior to its launch on June 18th, LUST will hold a lecture and presentation which will showcase their related projects, and the concepts and technologies behind them. The lecture is aimed at local artists and art practitioners, but is open to general public and free of charge.
The project has been realized with the kind support of The Mondriaan Foundation, Royal Netherlands Embassy, The City of Belgrade, Municipality of "Stari Grad" and the logistics partner Sky Music from Belgrade.