Welcome to Lumière !

Join us on a magical journey, as we move from darkness into the light.

40 luminous moving-image artworks, experiences and events - created by 25 extraordinary artists living and working in, or with connections to the Blue Mountains - will activate Mount Victoria from 22nd April - 1st May 2022. Many experiences and events are free, and suitable for all ages, along with a few very special ticketed screenings and must-see events. Please see the WHAT’S ON, LOCATIONS, and ARTISTS pages for details.

Explore the village’s historic buildings, discover contemporary artworks in unusual and unexpected places, such as the salons and grounds of historic Mount Victoria Manor - home to Hotel Etico, Australia’s first social enterprise hotel, where young adults with intellectual disabilities are developing hospitality skills and knowledge, whilst increasing their life-skills and becoming independent.

Mount Vic Flicks vintage cinema, Rhomboid Studio & Performance Space, shops, laneways, and a pop-up mini-cinema will host works that will delight locals and visitors. Discover familiar and hidden local, personal and collective stories, and be enchanted by the artists’ lyrical interpretations of light and liminality, as you delve into an array of cinematic worlds.

Lumière, French for light, is our starting point, as it is the process of light illuminating the darkness that brings the moving image to life.

Lumière traces the multifaceted trajectories of the moving image over time and space. We journey from its earliest beginnings, when the Lumière brothers, and Eadweard Muybridge brought the first cinematic experiences into the world; via the famous, first-ever ‘science-fiction’ silent film, Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip To The Moon) by Georges Mèliérs; to guest artist, Roger Foley-Fogg’s legendary psychedelic lightshows of the 1960s; culminating in contemporary digital artworks employing experimental new-media processes such as Peachey & Mosig’s 3D projection-mapping. We invite you to step into new worlds, explore possibilities, rediscover familiar places, interact with light and architectural spaces, viewing them through a new lens. We hope you find the light in the darkness as you immerse in the luminous wonder of this magical, versatile artform.

Rebecca Waterstone

Curator of Lumière

is deeply grateful for the support of our festival partners