Lumiere London festival of lights returns to King’s Cross this weekend with installations from 10 different artists

The festive season has passed and Christmas lights have come down. We’re into deepest, darkest January now, and everyone is looking for a bit of illumination to see us through the cold.

This weekend might lend a little respite. Thanks to annual Lumiere London, more than 50 works by artists from around the world are set to transform London’s streets into glittering displays of light. The city’s biggest art event is heavily represented in King’s Cross with 10 immersive displays.

Dot by Philippe Morvan sees a bank of lightbulbs flashing across Four Pancras Square. The 175 bulbs sync with a specially composed soundtrack by Solomon Grey.

On King’s Boulevard, Lampounette pays homage to the office desk lamp. French art studio TILT focuses its exploration of light on the interplay between art, architecture and space, and pays homage to the area’s business environment.

King’s Cross Tunnel is taken over by Maya Mouawad and Cyril Laurier’s Upperground, which intersects the natural world with the man-made. Electric lights installed in the tunnel are connected to the nearest park, where the wind triggers the lights in real time.

Another nature inspired piece is Waterlicht by Daan Roosegaarde in Granary Square. The Dutch artist contemplates global warming and rising sea levels by transforming the square with a virtual flood. Viewers can tune into the soundtrack on their own devices.

Architecture Social Club present emotive audio-visual work, Aether in West Handyside Canopy. The glittering mass ebbs and flows in reaction to a soundscape composed by Max Cooper, connecting light and sound to the emotion of the viewer.

Further installations include the permanent birdcage IFO (Identified Flying Object by Jacques Rival, Grabber by Mader Wiermann and Entre les Rangs from Rami Bebawi.

Helen Marriage, artistic director of Lumiere London and CEO of art charity Artichoke, who produces the event said: “It’s exciting and unusual to be working at this scale and to be able to knit together a coherent artistic programme across such a vast area of central London with so many partners, sponsors and supporters.

“From the charming to the thought-provoking, the artistic programme presents our amazing city to the world as a public gallery without walls, an open invitation for everyone to come out and play.”

For a full programme of installations and map of where to find them go to visitlondon.com/lumiere