Yesterday at 8:30 PM • Edited yesterday at 9:00 PM
Festival de Luz, that’s how GLOW Mexico is announced. Helmond Bart (55) van Bokhoven has already flown to Mexico four times in recent months to set up the first Mexican version of the Eindhoven light art festival. There is great interest: “All national TV and radio stations were present at the press conference.”
He still needs to work on his Spanish, but Bart has been in Mexico more often than in Helmond lately. “I have now spent about six weeks there,” he says. GLOW Mexico comes to the city of Puebla. About three million people live in the region.
In Eindhoven, the walking route past all kinds of light artworks has been a great success for years, with an average of around 750,000 visitors in eight days. Some of those visitors were members of a Mexican delegation in 2024. They were in the Netherlands for a fair on public lighting and visited GLOW during a few days off. They were immediately sold and wanted to have a conversation.
“They were charmed by the collaborations with local artists, educational institutions, children and young people that we involve in GLOW. This means that light art is not an elitist event. It is from and for everyone. The festival is inclusive.”
This is particularly appealing in Mexico, according to Bart. “There is a group that has quite a lot of money, but there is also a very large group that is poor. By presenting GLOW as a free festival, where you can also participate, you make it interesting for such a city to organize a festival.”
The Mexicans paid 15,000 euros for the name GLOW and for a walking route past all kinds of works. The design in the posters and the promotional video is the same as that of GLOW Eindhoven.
As program director of GLOW Eindhoven, Bart knows what is needed for the festival. He managed to attract artists who had previously shown their works in Eindhoven. For example, he brought the work ‘Step into the Light’ by the Eindhoven artist Michel Suk to Mexico. The work was shown during several editions of GLOW Eindhoven.
There will also be cooperation with local parties in Mexico. Four universities are joining in. And just like in the Netherlands, there is a project with children.
“We have a collaboration with a shelter for children who have been abused. We asked those children to make a drawing about colors and light. If they had to choose between living in light or dark, they all chose the dark. They are so traumatized that the dark is a safe environment for them.”
“We caught the hook there that there is always a light within yourself that you can still use. The drawings have been converted into light ornaments and they are hung there.”
The light art festival starts on Saturday April 11. During the first edition, 25 light artworks will be on display. Bart flies back to Mexico a day in advance. The intention is to have many more light art festivals follow in Puebla. De Helmonder would like to go back, but he does have a plan. “After this I will learn Spanish for a year. That is essential.”
