On the occasion of the celebrations for the 125th anniversary of Maurits Cornelis Escher‘s birth organised by the municipality of The Hague, the Italian Embassy in The Hague and the Italian Cultural Institute of Amsterdam offered an original audiovisual show with lasers and sounds: “BLACKLIGHT X”.
On the evenings of 21 to 24 September, Alberto Novello, director of the Department of Electronic Music at the Pollini Conservatory of Padua and multimedia artist graduated from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, illuminated the beach of Scheveningen with his performance.
Novello himself explained that “In BLACKLIGHT X, multiple laser projectors are used to paint on a surface made of several large shipping containers covered with photosensitive paint. In contrast with the frenetic yet precise laser movements, structures with minute details slowly emerge, resembling cities, forests, alien architectures, and evolving abstract worlds inspired by the work of M.C.Escher. BLACKLIGHT X is a contemplative live performance in which time is dilated to counterbalance the haste of modern life: invisible light revealing what is hidden, as phosphor extends its trace, capturing the passage of time. As in most of my recent work, sound is the signal that moves the laser beam in a synaesthetic and synchronic discourse exposed for the audience senses”.
The “BLACKLIGHT X” project has also been selected by the Municipality of The Hague as the opening show for the 2024 edition of the Horizon Festival, the successor of the fireworks festival that attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors every year to the beach of Scheveningen.
