On the opening weekend of this year’s Earagail Arts Festival, the organizers are delighted to welcome back some old festival friends, the Architects of Air who are back with one of their most magical luminarium structures, Architects of Air build luminaria – monumental inflatable structures designed to generate a sense of wonder at the beauty of light and colour.
The man behind designing the structures is Artistic Director Alan Parkinson who lives in France and works both there and in Nottingham where the Architects of Air are based.
He first started experimenting with pneumatic sculptures in the I980s and has since developed his own language of form in this plastic medium.
In 1992 he established the company Architects of Air to build and tour his luminarium designs and in its 20th anniversary year, they are delighted to bring Amococo to Rockhill House, Letterkenny, on the opening weekend of Earagail Arts Festival (July 7 to 22).
Amococo is the most labyrinthine luminarium, featuring as it does 86 triaxial domes and 71 pods that together create a complex of pathways where the visitors may happily lose themselves.
Amococo has been described as a ‘really immersive, inspiring, spiritual and accessible space – transformative for audiences. It’s a great way to engage a diverse range of local communities as well as attracting the passing tourists’.
Alan said: “What motivates me to design is the fact that I continue to be struck by the beauty of light and colour found in the luminaria.
“These structures nurture an awareness of a pure phenomenon that gently cuts through everyday conditioned perceptions and awakens a sense of wonder in people. The pneumatic form has a simple purity that echoes that of the light it contains.”
It has been Alan’s work to explore what is possible within the laws of pneumatics to develop an architectural aesthetic capable of doing justice to the beauty of the light in the luminarium, which visitors of the Earagail Arts Festival can now look forward to.
For more information on this event and other exciting shows taking place during the 24th annual Earagail Arts Festival log onto www.eaf.ie or get a copy of the festival brochure.
Follow the festival on www.donegaldaily.com
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