INTERNATIONAL: Set against the cold, dark Nordic winter in the Danish capital, artist Francois Gauriaud has said he hoped his work ‘Phenix ‘ would make people think ‘about travelling and flying and going around, the world’ after two years of Covid restrictions. Phenix is accompanied by audio of birdsong celebrating the nature that some humans still are destroying.

Copenhagen Light Festival has just opened, with 50 installations making it the largest in Europe. Following the repeal of corona restrictions in Denmark, organisers hope to welcome more visitors than last year, when more than 500,000 people visited over a three-week period.

One Danish artist has created a work from 5000 pieces of yellow plastic found in nature. They were cleaned and assembled into a 3.6-meter-tall globe formed construction called A Dozen Sun, by Maj D from Denmark.

Many were clearly emotional after years with restrictions and visiting guest Peter Garde has expressed: “It does something to your heart. It opens your mind. It makes a feeling inside of you of optimism because the winter and the last two years has been kind of closing. And now we are opening up and this light is helping you”.

The majority of the light works are placed along the quay and on the bicycle bridges in the most biked city in the world. As a new element, many works will also be turned on in the early morning, when people go to work.

The beginning of February is the coldest day in Denmark and the Nordic countries with temperatures often below 0 celsius. The Copenhagen Light Festival Sunday runs until February 27.