About Le Flash Atlanta
LE FLASH FACTS
Le Flash 2009
Le Flash 2009 was a brilliant night out for contemporary art in Atlanta!
In October 2008, Le Flash premiered in a cool shimmer of rain, entrancing a thousand thrill seekers who ventured out to help us create a legendary evening of art and light. This year, a full-faced moon looked down on five thousand participants immersed in an even brighter array of installation and performance. More than 70 artists’ projects lit up neighborhood streets and alleys, galleries and vacant lots, windows and warehouses with their energy. An unforgettable experience for all who were there!
Cheers, Castleberry! Bravo, Artists! Thank you, Atlanta! Vive Le Flash!
Le Flash 2009 in the NEWS
Le Flash Concept
Curators Cathy Byrd and Stuart Keeler, the team that invented Le Flash, produced last year’s premiere with the support of local and international funding, the Castleberry neighborhood association and a team of local art students and volunteers. Le Flash 2008 played on the spatial dynamic of Castleberry, making site-specific use of empty lots and dark streets in ways that captured the city’s largely untapped potential for experimental cultural production.
The curators’ aim was to initiate a yearly ephemeral arts celebration that would deepen the significance of contemporary art Atlanta, while linking the community to a broader cultural scene. Creating an exciting and expandable platform for new-genre public art, they called attention to the need for public and private investment in temporal projects.
Using light as the theme, LE FLASH centers on interactive sound and light installations, projected imagery and illuminated performance. The five-hour event shares a transitory aesthetic with cities around the world that take a night out for art once a year. Paris and Toronto, Tokyo and Berlin are among cultural destinations that light up for Nuit Blanche. Santa Monica’s Glow transforms the pier, the beach and Palisades Park for art from dusk to dawn.
Le Flash Premiere 2008
One misty night in October 2008, Le Flash sparked an ephemeral energy in Castleberry Hill. The first-ever Le Flash featured over 40 projects in the neighborhood’s streets and galleries, vacant lots and windows, warehouses and rooftops. The event illuminated the district from dusk to midnight, creating a unique cultural experience, and leaving a trace of magic and mystery in the minds of those who were there.