Enlightenment – a Vibrant Light Show by Eonarium at Leeds City Museum – uses Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as an energetic soundscape.
As the seasons change so do the palette and patterns sweeping across the walls, balcony and ceiling of the high circular hall. Is it the music that brings the light show to life or the visuals that rejuvenate the music? It is impossible to say: both are enhanced by the presence of the other.
A visit to Enlightenment is an immersive experience in the most complete sense. I visited with family after a difficult week which had included a bereavement, but as soon as the show started, I was completely engaged, cares forgotten, for the thirty-minute performance.
When we entered the hall, there were already bodies sprawled at our feet, the map of Leeds that decorates the floor scattered with bean bags and reclining figures. There is a choice of seating: formal chairs for those who prefer to sit upright, bean bags with back rests and other bean bags that can be manipulated to whichever shape you like. We found a group of vacant bags and spread ourselves over the River Aire.
Five minutes to adjust to the dark, a few announcements, a further dimming of light and the music began. I’m not sure if the volume increased as the show progressed or whether my engagement with the spectacle made it more encompassing. At the start, music and colour were two separate entities, but they soon became indistinguishable.
Each season started with an explosion of pattern and colour, establishing a style for the specific time of year. Leaves, snowflakes and flowers reminded us of natural sights but so did the abstract patterns which painted their own seasonal narrative. A common motif was a bird heading across the ceiling, heralding the end of a movement, the bird’s colouring reflecting the palette of that season. The domed ceiling acted as a focus, pulling pattern towards a central point.
At times, I felt physically pulled, as though I was being sucked towards the centre of the domed roof. We had been advised about exits and told we were welcome to leave for a few minutes then return if the experience became too overwhelming. I had presumed that this was aimed at people with sensory or medical conditions. I did not need to leave but occasionally found myself looking at a wall to re-centre my body. Two of our party of three felt disorientated at times. When I walked out into the early evening air my legs felt as though I had travelled on a cross-channel ferry and needed to re-acquaint with firm land.
The arrangement does not follow Vivaldi’s score slavishly. The work has been abridged and does add original music in the latter stages. The world’s most famous Baroque score has been embellished and developed. The programme described new sections called Ignorance and Enlightenment, a nod to the need to work with nature, but in all honesty by this stage I was letting the music and sights engulf me and was only mildly aware of the change in direction. The event ends with a return to the famous Four Seasons overture.
Enlightenment was attended by a lot of families and when the doors opened at the end I was surprised at how many young children (it is recommended for children over three) had been present. I had heard one infant during the performance, and they had quickly been resettled by their parents. Not only had the audience been silent but they had also been still, focussed upon their senses, not their bodies.
The circular hall of Leeds City Museum made a fitting canvas. Once the site of mass lectures of over a thousand people when it first opened as Leeds Mechanics Institute, it seemed fitting for it to be used for such a communal event. My sister found the irregularity of the balcony, where some arches are covered and others are open, a little distracting, whilst I enjoyed seeing how the pattern poured into the open sections.
The illuminations gave us all a new appreciation of this historic building.
Performances run from Friday to Sunday until 27 th July. Adult prices are £12 or £13 on Sundays, with reductions for seniors, children and groups.
FOR TICKETS: https://feverup.com/m/366495
Images: PROJEKTIL Fever.
