Some of us dream of seeing the magical northern lights but cannot travel to the other side of the world – an immersive installation as part of the Wonder festival at HOTA provides a perfect opportunity to experience it.

The Northern hemisphere has the Aurora Borealis while here in the Southern Hemisphere we have the Aurora Australis but you’d have to go to Tasmania at a certain time of the year to see that.

The outdoor art show Borealis, part of the 10-day festival, brings the spectacle to us. It has travelled to cities around the world, and is the creation of internationally renowned Switzerland-based artist Dan Acher.

Differences in movement, colour and density of the light beams together with changing weather conditions means that the variations within the work are infinite, with a unique aurora created each time.

As Acher explains, Borealis is much more than a light show. His creation seamlessly merges light and sound into a mesmerising symphony, with an evocative musical composition by Guillaume Desbois as the soundtrack.

“I’m really interested in situations where we can get people to come together beyond their differences,” Acher says.

“And I’m really interested also about events or situations where there’s a before and after – when people transform at transformative events.

“I started to interview people that have seen the real northern lights in their lives. And they said they are different afterwards, and they feel really small. It’s like this big event and it really transforms them.

“And then my mind started to think, okay, this is really powerful and more people should be able to experience this, but what’s the percentage of people who have this opportunity once in a lifetime? It’s really, really tiny.

“So, the thought process was – am I able to recreate something that looks like it and bring it to the people around the world? That was the trigger.”

And in keeping with that ethos Borealis is free for people to experience at HOTA’s outdoor stage. Acher encourages people to walk around within the artwork to see it from every angle.

“One message to the people is that the installation looks very different depending on your point of view,” Acher says.” So don’t hesitate to move around, to go in front or to go all the way to the back. It’s really different depending on where you are.

“That’s the beauty of this project. I’m tapping here into something that is really universal. People slow down, sit down, even lay down and take their time.

“People slow down and that’s really important to me. And the voices go down and there’s this awe, this sense of, oh, look at here, look at there.”

From Seoul to Madrid, Borealis has toured to 40 cities with the Gold Coast being the 40^th.

Acher hope it prompts philosophical conversations about the importance of communing with nature, versus human compulsion to control it. He also wants to explore the interplay of technology with nature and show that they can coexist rather than compete.

“What was really important to me as well here is, because it’s an installation where we speak about technology and nature, there’s a question where – the Northern Lights shouldn’t be here,” he says. “And it’s made by technology and the question is – will technology be able to replace everything that nature provides for us?”

Wonder and Borealis will run from October 6 to October 15. The installation will be closed to the public for other ticketed events on Saturday October 7 and Friday October 13. 

hota.com.au

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