Luzinterruptus is an anonymous art group who originally began working on the streets of Madrid by using light as a way to bring attention to certain parts of the city. Their main technique that makes them different is their art pieces are short lived, meaning they only last for a few days, sometimes even a few hours. I believe this offers a special opportunity for the people who witness the art to live in the moment more.
From the days on the streets of Madrid, the group branched out to other regions of the world, sharing their art with others while spreading messages at the same time. Luzinterruptus implements everyday objects that we may find on the streets or at home and dresses it with light. For example, one notable piece was a labyrinth of plastic bottles which represents the amount of waste we produce on a daily basis. The bottles were suspended by plastic bags containing the bottle with small blue lights inside of them. This is what gave off the nice blue haze. The bottles were recycled when the project was taken down. It is projects like these that demonstrate Luzinterruptus’s concern for the environment and raising awareness of it.
Another piece dealt with the issue of “literature vs. traffic.” Luzinterruptus laid down 10,000 books on a street in Toronto over the course of 12 days with the help of other volunteers. This served as a silent protest against the effects of traffic on urban living. For the night that the piece was on display, that area of the city was given a rest from the noise and pollution caused by cars and traffic and replaced it with words and literature instead. Pedestrians were free to jump in the “river of books” and many were gone by the time morning came.
One of my favorite works from Luzinterruptus was their way of highlighting the importance of water in Taiwan’s society. In order to bring attention to the drought issue in Taiwan, the group spent a few days filling up, hanging up and eventually illuminating over 3,000 condoms to make it look like rain droplets were falling from the sky. The amount of creativity and overall brain power that goes into a project like this is what makes this art group so unique in my opinion.
The last example I decided to present was a project that brought attention to the urban regeneration of Italy. Luzinterruptus strung and illuminated over 2,000 locally picked peppers in a small town in Italy as part of an agricultural festival. When finished, it created a large, beautiful canopy for the festival goers to look up and gaze at. At the end of the festival, the peppers were cooked and eaten for the celebratory dinner.
