For the Amsterdam Light Festival, which goes on from now through January 2015, Italian design studio Aether & Hemera has created On the Wings of Freedom, a radiant cloud of hundreds of butterflies that hover above the ground. The dazzling installation can be found along the walking route of the festival, at Wertheimpark. Visitors with a smartphone are welcome to change the lighting effects which means they can manipulate the colors and patterns of light.
The butterflies represent metamorphosis and freedom across all cultures. Essentially, this installation is about the transformation of a city, in this case, Amsterdam. As they state, “The city is a place where people can continuously be inspired, not only culturally but also socially; a place for ongoing change and progress. On the Wings of Freedom symbolizes this potential change and evolution.
”With our installation’s dynamic waves of colors we wanted to celebrate Amsterdam’s bubbles and buzzes of activities, thoughts and interactions.”
“The joyous flapping creatures in the Wertheimpark are not just a source of beauty and enjoyment, but also a request: keep the change coming. It’s what Amsterdam is all about. It’s been said that a butterfly can cause a storm. Leave it to these butterflies to cause a hurricane of light and creativity.”
The last time we saw Aether & Hemera, they were sailing colorful paper boats down the surface of London’s Canary Wharf.
