On Wednesday, February 2, Saturday, February 3 (from 6.30 to 11.30 p.m.) and Sunday, February 4 (from 6.30 to 11 p.m.), come see the city under a new light. Or, at least, a part of the city, which includes Poblenou and the area around Plaça de les Glòries, from Meridiana to the Parc del Centre de Poblenou. It is a large area including the construction works for the park in Plaça de Glòries. What is the best way to see it all? There is not one, but three.

Llum BCN is a festival of reference in Europe that follows a trend that has been sweeping the continent in recent years: of organising festivals with light as the main actor  to radically change the appearance of emblematic buildings from hosting cities. It is a project that links art and technology and, in Barcelona, includes artists and educational centres. Professionals and institutions related to the worlds of art, architecture and design have a lot to do with the proposal. In the picture you can see the poster for this year’s event, the work of Menorcan designer Àlex Gifreu.

More than 200,000 people (last year there were 220,000) will visit the three professional installations and the seventeen installations created by Barcelona schools. With so many people concentrated in one area of the city, it is essential to plan ahead. This is why Llum BCN, a festival under the artistic direction of Maria Güell and with Juliette Bibasse as guest international curator, proposes three itineraries that allow visitors to see everything in the most comfortable way and without transport complications. 

Blue route

The first route, the blue one, focuses more on the area around the DHUB and the avinguda de la Meridiana, on both sides. Be aware that the area near Glòries is under construction and complicated, but don’t forget to visit it because there you’ll find creations by great artists such as Jou Serra and Antoni Arola, among others, as well as installations created by students at the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and the Massana School. On one side of the Meridiana, you will find creations by great artists such as Jou Serra (L’Auditori), Antoni Arola (TNC) and TAKK (Mercat dels Encants), as well as installations created by students from the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and the Massana School. On the other side of the Meridiana, on the Tànger site, you have three schools in the same space (ESDAP Campus Deià and Campus Llotja and IED Barcelona). Around the DHUB you’ll find proposals by United Visual Artists – UVA (part of an exhibition that can be visited beyond Llum BCN 24), Caroline Robert and Vincent Morisset (Studio AATOAA) and Elisa Storelli. You will also find the installation that speaks of young talent at the Yamaha Light Meeting Point.

Purple route

A second proposal is to start the route along the purple route. Here you can see some works that are mostly located on the T4 tram line that runs along the Diagonal (Ca l’Aranyó, Pere IV, Fluvià), which will make it easier to move from one point to the other. It includes the installations of artists and schools located around MediaTIC (Jardins de Ca l’Aranyó, Museu Can Framis, Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and the Parc del Centre del Poblenou. The itinerary includes proposals located between Plaça de les Glòries, Diagonal and Bac de Roda, both by participating artists (only in the Parc del Centre del Poblenou, you already have three, those of Anna Ridler, Joris Strijbos & Nycki Assman and Josep Poblet; very close by, there is also the proposal by Sofía Montenegro), but also proposals from teaching centres such as EINA, the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de La Salle or BAU, among others.

Orange route

A third itinerary, this one in orange, will take you into Poblenou, following the Pamplona Street axis towards the sea and, in parallel, along Pujades Street between Bogatell and Llacuna. These are mainly installations by local artists from Poblenou, organised by the Poblenou Urban District association. There you will find works by multidisciplinary artists (OFF Llum section) such as Agustina Palazzo, Mario García or Beat Me Lab, among others.

Note that these routes have been designed to promote mobility in the area and that they are connected, that you will find two information points during Llum BCN 2024 located in front of the MediaTIC building and in Plaça de Josep Antoni Coderch, and that you will have an app at your disposal that will make your visit easier and provide you with all the information you need about opening hours, special times and everything you need to make a tour or to measure yourself.

If you want to enjoy Llum BCN intensely, follow the marked itineraries and let the city enlighten you. You will find more information on the Llum BCN website.