The 10th edition of the Amsterdam Light Festival arrived quietly, its milestone celebrations overshadowed by the city's Covid lockdown. With galleries shuttered and streets emptied of their usual rhythm, the festival did what it could by showing up anyway.
I've always been a fan of this festival and loved wandering the streets and canals of Amsterdam after dark, discovering canals and streets lit up by the art installations, which is honestly the only way you should do it. A light festival in daylight sounds like a small joke. But lockdown doesn't leave you many options, so I made my way into the city on a typical Dutch winter afternoon with gray sky, cold wind coming from every direction at once, no particular plan in mind. Just somewhere to be that wasn't my little apartment
The funny thing is, seeing these sculptures in broad daylight brought a whole new experience. They’re designed for darkness. In broad daylight, they seemed to have lost their charm but added a whole new sense of absurdity to this COVID experience. You have to look at them with a sense of humor, as if they are mocking our universal human experience.
When the drizzle kicked in, I ducked into a quaint small Dutch brown café and ordered a hot chocolate—takeaway, obviously. Standing outside in the cold with my hands wrapped around the cup, it was the best I’d felt all week. Look for the small joys in life; that’s what that whole dark period has taught me.
