arts&life

art

Akiko Nakayama

The Light

A magical world of

light and technology

merge at Dlectricity

— thanks, in part,

to two men named

Schwartz.

details

Dlectricity will be held in Midtown
Detroit from 7 p.m.-midnight Sept.
22-23. For more information or to
register for the Light Bike Parade,
go to dlectricity.com.

98

September 14 • 2017

L

et there be light, says
Midtown Detroit Inc. and
DTE Energy Foundation.
And so it shall be Sept. 22-23,
when Dlectricity returns to
Midtown for the third time
since its inception in 2012.
Dlectricity, a spectacular
evening outdoor festival of
art and light inspired by Nuit
Blanche festivals all around
the world, will take over the
exteriors of buildings on
Woodward from the Detroit
Institute of Arts (DIA) to the
Museum of Contemporary Art
Detroit (MOCAD). Visitors are
immersed in a landscape of
light through groundbreaking
installations of video art, 3D
video mapping, lasers, interac-
tive design and engineering,
and captivating performance.
A curatorial team that
reviewed more than 270 local
and international submissions

jn

PHOTO BY BRETT MOUNTAIN

JULIE YOLLES SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Marc Schwartz, Dlectricity chair and Art
Detroit Now founder

ultimately chose 36 artists (13
invited and 23 selected from
an open call) to participate in
this year’s event. Chaired by
George N’Namdi, Dlectricity’s
curatorial team was made up of

voices representing Cranbrook,
the DIA, College for Creative
Studies (CCS), MOCAD and the
University of Michigan.
“Our team was very bold in
selecting artists that reflect
the diversity of our city and are
using light in amazing ways to
express their vision,” said Marc
Schwartz, Dlectricity chair and
Art Detroit Now founder. “We
continue to think about light as
a symbol of energy, reflection
and community connection.”
Los Angeles-transplant and
community-minded artist Gary
Schwartz (no relation to Marc
Schwartz) moved to Detroit
with his wife in 2003. The
Academy Award-nominated
filmmaker, director and anima-
tor travels the world teaching
animation workshops. His
Dlectricity project will be a cul-
mination of workshops he pres-
ents to kids and senior citizens

associated with Hannan House
in Detroit (through the Luella
Hannan Memorial Foundation).
He has named his Dlectricity
kinetic visual storytelling
project “Speramus Meliora
Resurget Cineribus.”
“I came up with that title
because I’m so creative,”
Schwartz jokes. “I ripped off
the quote directly from [Ste.
Anne’s Church Assistant
Pastor] Father Gabriel Richard,
who came up with the motto
for Detroit after the fire of 1805:
‘We hope for better things; it
will arise from the ashes.’”
Schwartz’s workshop partici-
pants will create a soundtrack
and animate the quote, in
English and Latin, synchroniz-
ing it to the soundtrack. The
phrase will then be split in half
and projected in loops on two
separate windows of Hannan
House during Dlectricity.