International Lighthouse Relay 2011

24 Jun - 25 Sept 2011 | Lighthouses around the world including Folkestone

More than 40 artists have created site-specific sound and visual work for over 20 lighthouse sites around the UK and in Europe, Asia, South America, and the Antipedes. Each artist began by creating a sound artwork in response to a lighthouse of their choice, with an accompanying visual component. The artists were also commissioned to collaborate on the Lighthouse Relay - the creation of a set of transitional sound pieces, via the exchange of site or concept related sound samples, that will be developed as the work moves from one lighthouse site to the next.

Project Background


Lighthouses have made a significant contribution to both saving seafarers’ lives and the development of global communication systems. The significance of lighthouses to coastal regions is, in part, due to that history and due to the emotional response their architectural prominence creates. As well known landmarks their austere beauty combines with the practicality of their signals and light to produce a recognised worldwide phenomenon. Many existing lighthouses originated as ancient beacon sites, reflecting our human desire to communicate and a historic connection, a communicative DNA, with sites that enabled this.

The Folkestone Fringe's interest in producing this project was inspired by Guglielmo Marconi’s pioneering experiments with radio transmission in the local area, specifically in Dungeness and at the South Foreland Lighthouse on Kent’s South Eastern Coast.

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