Italy - The University of Bari Aldo Moro, located in Puglia, celebrated 100 years since its foundation in 1925 with two pieces of light art created by Pino Loconsole, owner of Bari-based rental company Lucidiscena.
These included a spectacular rooftop installation on the main administrative building comprising 16 x Robe iBolts.
Pino was commissioned to create the works by Stefano Bronzini, the university’s Dean, and the lighting fixtures were from Lucidiscena’s rental stock. With almost 40,000 students, the University of Bari offers different degree courses, ranging from literature and philosophy to physics and the life sciences.
The two lighting installations were very different. For the main building in Palazzo Ateneo, which is also the university’s faculty of literature and philosophy, Pino wanted to make a big impact, and the iBolts, which he had purchased the previous summer, were the chosen instrument to achieve this.
The impressive neoclassical style building is 140m long and Pino spaced the 16 iBolts along this equidistantly. They were focused in one position on maximum power in white, the direction carefully calculated not to interfere with aircraft.
“I deliberately wanted a structural look to complement the building,” explained Pino. “Sometimes simplicity speaks the loudest!”
In front of the building is a big square opening out into a large park and garden area so positioned on the roof, iBolts were clearly visible from across this area, and the optimal viewing position was the middle of the square.
Palazzo Ateneo is a popular place with locals, and also adjacent to one of Bari’s main commercial streets and a major thoroughfare to the city’s train station. With a lot of general footfall, passers-by could appreciate the iBolt installation first-hand.
“Everyone in the city knew what was going on and about the centenary thanks to these amazing iBolt beams,” Pino noted.
The beams also became a temporary meeting place for the duration and were visible for great distances along the south coast on clearer nights, with the furthest reported sighting being 45k.
The light art pieces – the other one involved the back side of the building – stayed live for 10 days, one day for each decade of the hundred years’ celebration.
