United Visual Artists to light up Covent Garden at Xmas

Covent Garden London has commissioned interdisciplinary consultancy United Visual Artists to create a contemporary responsive light installation as part of the area’s winter season.



The large-scale installation, which launches on 14 November, will feature hundreds of 2m-long, individually controllable LED strips, suspended in the spaces of the Covent Garden Market building.



They will display constantly-changing light patterns, which visitors will be able to affect using interactive panels. A rolling programme of musical performances will also respond to the installation.



According to Bev Churchill, Covent Garden London brand director, UVA won the commission, in a four-way pitch, on the strength of its previous work and its approach to the interactive requirements of the brief.



UVA creative director Matt Clark says the installation, which will run for three years, would avoid the usual clichés that come with Christmas. ‘However, we are still aiming to give people a memorable experience and one that is fitting for the time of year,’ he adds.



UVA at Covent Garden anchors a programme of events and installations, which include a pop-up bar and a temporary retail space. It forms part of a move over the past two years to establish Covent Garden as a more proactive cultural public space.



A profile of UVA appears in the 16 October issue of Design Week.

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