Cesare Cremonini still lights up the arcades of Bologna: thousands at the switch-on

The installation, created on the occasion of the second edition of the Bologna Portici Festival, will remain lit from 5 to 9 June, from dusk to dawn

Photo by Erika Serio

BOLOGNA – The Portici of San Luca, a UNESCO heritage site since 2021, come to life on the occasion of the second edition of the Bologna Portici Festivalthanks to an impressive artistic project unique in the world promoted by Cesare Cremonini with the participation of the German artist Philipp Frank. The installation will remain lit from June 5th to 9th, from dusk to dawn. Thousands welcomed the singer-songwriter when he first turned it on.

Lights in San Luca talks about Bologna through lights and colors that reflect the feelings of a city in such an important year. A year of goals, successes and celebrations: from the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of the greatest inventors in modern history, Guglielmo Marconi (born in Bologna on 25 April 1874), to Bologna’s historic qualification for the Champions League which, after 60 years, reaches an unforgettable milestone in its glorious history.

“Bologna is the city where you can walk in light – tells Cesare Cremonini– from every perspective you look at it, it is the protagonist of our way of living. From the continuous geometries of shadow and light that are created between the porticoes, to the facades blazing with color at sunset, Bologna is that place where the dark is not scary. Light like Lucio Dalla, the Michelangelo of Italian song. But not only. Bologna as a beacon of knowledge kept in the Alma Mater Studiorum, the oldest university in the world. Could this be why we all feel a bit like young Guglielmo Marconis here? The Nobel Prize-winning physicist who discovered radio waves, with which we today light up our time of communication and creativity, turns 150 and continues to inspire new generations. The same new generations who are lucky enough to live the dream of Bologna football flying to the Champions League in the coming year. The ‘Luci a San Luca’ project is dedicated to all this and more, part of the Bologna Portici Festival, now in its second edition. A dedication of light and color to bring Bologna to the eyes of all of Italy and beyond.”

THE PROJECT

Cesare Cremonini, this year he wanted to involve the visionary land-light artist in the project of the porticoes of San Luca Philipp Frank and its ability to create a fusion between the natural landscape that surrounds it and plays of light, thus shaping unmistakable and high-impact atmospheres.

Under the portico of San Luca, from the Arco del Meloncello to the Basilica, for almost two kilometres, the technology will give life to over 300 arches, illuminating them, in a setting of extraordinary beauty. Walking along the portico, at the famous Orfanelle curveit will be possible to witness a real visual spectacle in which the trees along the route will integrate with seductive light projections in a combination that will transport the public into a surreal atmosphere.

THE UNRELEASED MUSIC OF CESARE CREMONINI

Here, for the first time, the images will be accompanied by the unreleased music that Cesare Cremonini wrote for the occasion together with the producer and musician Alessandro Magnanini.

Finally, shortly before arrival, the porch will be the setting for a video installation, signed by Philipp Frank, in which architecture, nature and technology meet in a moment full of suggestion, where the virtual becomes real.