The “sustainable fireworks” made in Bilbao by Daan Roosegaarde

Last December 3rd, some of the us participants of this blog were witness to how, at the pond by the pergola at Doña Casilda Park in Bilbao, there was a cloud of small shiny elements just floating there.  It was obvious that that it was a test for some kind of show.  On the one hand, it seemed to be quite beautiful, but on the other, there was a very kind security staff that kept us onlookers from getting to close to the pergola.

We did try, from a distance, to capture some sort of still of video to share on our social media.  But, as you can see, the results were less than spectacular.

So, we decided not to share it, especially since we didn’t know what it was about.

But now the mystery has been revealed.  It was a show of the “sustainable fireworks” created for an event to be held in Bilbao by Dutch artist, inventor, architect, and businessman Daan Roosegaarde.

Those were the trials, and the way to show a preview video of what will be shown at the same place from June 1–3, 2022: the SPARK BILBAO cloud, measuring 50 × 30 × 50 m (165 × 100 × 165 ft).  The show will coincide with the Wellbeing Summit for Social Change 2022 being held in the Biscayan capital.

This event, whose first edition is being held in Bilbao, is expected to bring together more than 1,000 world leaders in the areas of social change, government, and business, and the goal is, via “talks and artistic experiences to deepen our collective understanding of individual and collective wellbeing in the context of social change, and to commit to action.”

But we’ll undoubtedly catch up on this event closer to when it happens.  At the moment, we want to focus on this Dutch artist’s creation.

It’s a 50 × 30 × 50 m (165 × 100 × 165 ft) cloud made up of thousands of floating, biodegradable sparks, and it designed as a new way of sustainable celebration.  SPARK is the fourth project in the DreamScapes series with Media.Monks where a dream comes true to create a better world.

Half the world’s media have been filled with the very beautiful images of this “fireworks” project, which is free of noise and free of pollution.

We’ll leave you with the Roosegaarde Studio website, which presents the project, and two articles about it, from Italy and from Mexico.

Studio Roosegaarde – 1/2022 – Netherlands

SPARK Organic fireworks as a sustainable celebration

Organic fireworks SPARK Bilbao illuminates the city as a new sustainable celebration. Artist Daan Roosegaarde became inspired by the magical light of fireflies, and the desire to update the ritual of fireworks. The result is SPARK Bilbao, a poetic performance of thousands of biodegradable light sparks which organically float through the air. SPARK inspires visitors to wonder and reflect.

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Corriere della Sera – 28/1/2022 – Italy

Il cielo sopra Bilbao si illumina con i fuochi d’artificio sostenibili di Daan Roosegaarde

Artista, inventore digital, attivista ambientale: Daan Roosegaarde continua a stupire con le sue performance en plein air aperte al grande pubblico. Dopo le piste ciclabili fluorescenti in Polonia e Danimarca e il cielo “catturato” dentro l’aeroporto di Schipol, il vulcanico olandese presenta Spark Bilbao, un’alternativa sostenibile ai tradizionali fuochi d’artificio, in scena dal 1 al 3 giugno 2022 al Wellbeing Summit for Social Change di Bilbao-Biscay, in Spagna.

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Criterio Hidalgo – 28/1/2022 – Mexico

Il Así son los ‘fuegos artificiales’ biodegradables

Ver fuegos artificiales en el cielo es el clímax de varias celebraciones, algo que preocupaba al artista Daan Roosegaarde, originario de los Países Bajos, así que ideó una manera de festejo masivo y sustentable: SPARK (Chispa, en inglés)

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Media.Monks film, directed by Jan Kooyman and Jos van Meerveld. Photography by Roberto Conte, Jontxu Fernandez and Daan Roosegaarde.

Last Updated on Jan 30, 2022 by About Basque Country