From March 11 to 20, 2027, the light and media art festival LICHTROUTEN will take place in Lüdenscheid. What began in 2002 as a city marketing initiative became an art project in public space with local, regional, and international radiance. The theme of the next LICHTROUTEN edition is the role of light in digitalisation. Art projects throughout the city show how analog and digital realities intertwine.
ART FOR EVERYONE
More than 50,000 visitors will meander through the city. Most of them are local, but a significant number travel from all over the world. These include not only the invited artists, but also trade visitors from the world of light and media culture.
CURATORIAL LEGACY
In 2002, LICHTROUTEN was one of the first curated light art festivals in Europe. Under the artistic direction of Bettina Pelz and Tom Groll, the festival has developed into a lively platform for art, technology, and society. They design the festival as a place of experimentation where extraordinary works are created and actors from different fields work together. The tenth edition represents a quarter of a century of artistic production, curatorial research, and social collaboration. From the very beginning, LICHTROUTEN has positioned itself as an international light art festival. Since 2024, LICHTROUTEN has been part of the International Light Festival Organization (ILO), an international network of light festivals in Europe.
ART IN PUBLIC SPACES
LICHTROUTEN 2027 invites artists who explore the boundaries between the analog and the digital dimension and address the influence of digital media on society, identity, and sustainability. LICHTROUTEN locations include urban landmarks such as city hall and churches, all art and cultural institutions, as well as off-spaces—places. They all make space for artistic perspectives at the intersections of digitalization, art, and society. The exhibition program is complemented by information services, and opportunities for exchange and interaction.
REALTIME
Under this year’s theme of “Realtime,” international artists explore the simultaneity of analog and digital experience. In an increasingly digitally networked present, the relationship between technological progress and digital sovereignty is becoming a central issue of our time. Real-time processes are based on digital infrastructures whose stability and security depend on global cloud systems, data centers, and high-performance computers. These technologies shape our communication, economic systems, and artistic production methods. The installations at LICHTROUTEN 2027 reflect these connections. They showcase both the innovation and possibilities as well as the complexity and fragility of the digital systems that shape the living environments of the 21st century.
THE CREATIVE CITY
The festival sees itself as part of a creative ecosystem of art, technology, science, and urban society. Through long-term partnerships with all art and cultural institutions and diverse collaborations in the lighting industry, Lüdenscheid has become a European center of light culture. From the outset, structural and communicative responsibility has rested with Stadtmarketing Lüdenscheid, which has succeeded in implementing a model of sustainable urban development through art and technology with LICHTROUTEN.
With the anniversary edition of LICHTROUTEN 2027, Lüdenscheid will celebrate 25 years of light art. LICHTROUTEN will become a resonance space in which light is negotiated as an artistic material and as a medium of the visible, as a data carrier and cultural heritage.