LIGHT IS COMING

A dazzling mirror ball installation is set to light up Birmingham city centre in the first few days of Spring

Illuminating the city centre as we spring forward into daylight saving time and delivering an important message of sharing the love in challenging times, Our Beating Heart, a dazzling light installation will pop-up in Snow Hill Square between Thursday 21 to Saturday 23 March. 

This giant heart-shaped mirror ball will reflect natural light during the day, and as the sun sets, it will transform the space with fantastical dancing lights and an eye-catching wash of colour. Experience this immersive artworkat its best from 6.30pm to 10.30pm each evening. The experience is completely free to enjoy.

Our Beating Heart, created by Studio Vertigo, is a revolving sculpture featuring 11,000 mirrored tiles. The heart-shaped sculpture will create an unexpected shimmering sight on a grand scale, allowing viewers to admire thousands of rotating glints of light across Birmingham’s Snow Hill Square. The installation is accompanied by a heart-themed disco soundtrack, and on Saturday 23 March there will be a very special one-off silent disco– free to experience and no booking required!

With the help of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, City Curator, Alex Nicholson-Evans has joined forces with producers Outdoor Places Unusual Spaces and Colmore BID to bring this installation to Birmingham.

Alex commented, “There has never been a more important moment for the people of this city to come together and share some love and positivity. Birmingham is facing incredibly difficult times, but this is still a truly fantastic city to live in, to work in, to visit, and to do business in. It’s a city full of resilient and creative people and I hope many of you will take this opportunity to experience part of the city centre in a different light. We’re inviting anyone who visits the Birmingham premiere of Our Beating Heart to take a photo and share it on social media with the hashtag #lovebirmingham. Let’s spread some much-needed positivity about this special place we all call home.”

This is the first time Studio Vertigo have ever showcased their masterful light-based installation in Birmingham. Studio Vertigo is a collaboration between Lucy McDonnell and Stephen Newby who work internationally to create light installations and sculptures. They create work that questions the relationship between objects, viewers, and their environment. Their work has been shown internationally and recently been commissioned for Amsterdam Light Festival, Lumiere Durham, Uppsala Light Festival, CPH Copenhagen Light Festival, Vilnius Light Festival and Taiwan Lantern Festival.   

Michele Wilby, CEO of Colmore BID added, “We are thrilled to be supporting this project which will drive footfall to the city centre during what can be a quiet time of year for our wonderful retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses. It’s fantastic to be bringing this artwork to Birmingham for people to enjoy and experience completely free of charge. Celebrating creativity and culture in the city is incredibly important, now more than ever, and we can’t wait for this exciting moment as we welcome the start of Spring.”

Bringing Our Beating Heart to Birmingham is part of a test project, Light is Coming, which will explore the feasibility of a new city centre wide light festival. Visitors experiencing the light installation in March will be invited to share their thoughts when they visit, which will help to inform plans and fundraising for Birmingham Light Festival.

The Light is Coming project has received funding from the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Light is Coming will run from Thursday 21 to Saturday 23 March in Snow Hill Square. It is visible during the day but will be lit upfrom 6.30pm to 10.30pm.

For more information visit https://colmorebusinessdistrict.com/events/light-is-coming/