From The Straits Times    |

Photo: Aleksandra Stratimirovic

Learn about urban farming, bounce around in an inflatable playground, or catch a live music act while marvelling at 20 light art installations at this year’s i Light Marina Bay.

The annual sustainable light art festival returns for its fifth edition from March 3 to 26 with three new hubs.

Each hub along the Marina Bay waterfront will focus on a theme: sustainability, imaginative play and lifestyle.

The Fantastical World of eco.me at The Promontory @ Marina Bay imparts lessons on sustainable living in Singapore, as well as host a recycling and upcycling marketplace, urban farming showcase and a kinetic energy playground.

The Art Zoo at The Float @ Marina Bay is where the little ones can go wild jumping on giant inflatables in a playground framed as an imaginative zoological garden.

Gastrobeats at the Bayfront Event Space has plenty of food options and live music performancesfor festivalgoers.

The light installations are not to be forgotten, of course. There will be 20 works by both Singaporean and international artists following the theme Light & Nature.

Festival curator Randy Chan says: “The artistic direction of the festival this year explores the relationship of light with nature and the city – a theme that fits in with the backdrop of the garden city we live in.”

The stunning natural light phenomenon, the Northern Lights, is the inspiration for one of the light art pieces. Swedish artist Aleksandra Stratimirovic tells a story using 100 vertically positioned light lines using LED sources.

Her work was featured at the Amsterdam Light Festival in the Netherlands, which is one of three overseas light festivals that i Light Marina Bay is collaborating with for the first time.

On the homefront, five educational institutions, including Lasalle College of the Arts and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), will each be contributing an installation.

The SUTD students have created Kaleidoscopic Monolith, a kaleidoscope-like piece made up of uneven, rippling surfaces on which visitors can see their own reflections.

Presented by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), i Light Marina Bay promotes sustainability and importance of being environmentally friendly. Last year’s edition attracted an audience of 742,000.

WHERE: Around the Marina Bay waterfront promenade

WHEN: March 3 to 26, 7.30 to 11pm, till midnight on Fridays and Saturdays

ADMISSION: Free

INFO: www.ilightmarinabay.sg

The original version of this story was published in The Straits Times on January 20, 2017.