This year, 80 installations all told were spread throughout the city's nine arrondissements. Among the historic sites targeted was the Place des Terreaux, which has seen, among other spectacles, Skertzo majestically set fire to three of its four sides for two consecutive years. This year, the square welcomed Patrice Warrener, a regular at the Festival (winner of the Trophy of the City of Lyon in 2001) and a veteran in monumental projection. The inventor of polychromatic illumination, known as Chromolithe, preferred to focus on the Bartholdi Fountain. A tribute in the form of a deluge of colours that transformed the sculptural elements of the chariot and horses, giving them the appearance of phosphorescent stone, with sprays of water and tongues of fire. Five Christie Roadster S+20Ks took part in this phantasmagoria, run by ETC. As if to echo this scaled-down image (compared to the scale of the site), the transformed heads of the horses, projected by three Christie Roadster S+20Ks mounted on Nitro yokes, swept across the facade. This was a first in France for Christie Nitro Solutions, whose potential for outdoor events is rooted in the city by the Rhone.

Farther on, Marie-Jeanne Gauthé (winner of the Trophy of Lights 2009) offered up a watery experiment, called Un Air du large, on the fountain pool at the Place de la République. Produced using laser animation and mist nozzles, a moon, projected onto a hemispherical curtain of water and looking as if it were rising out of a stormy sea, served as the backdrop to dreamlike evocations. They represented the dark side of the moon and illustrated the myths of the sea. This piece, which ran for three minutes, was set up by Alabama, a technical services provider based in Lyon, using a Christie Roadster S+20K projector utilising rear projection techniques on the curtain of water. For Marie-Jeanne Gauthé, this projection was only possible because of the high quality of the black tones provided by the Christie projectors.

But the Festival of Lights was not confined only to cultural heritage sites. Located at the entrance to Lyon, the TNT company's head office building was the focus of a monumental illumination by Damien Fontaine (4 Horizons). Like a signal shooting across the entire city, this piece, projected onto two facades, was a nod to the epic airmail years of author Saint-Exupéry. Cut into 3D sequences of one minute each, it shows the packages that were wrapped and shipped to faraway places. "You see the package depart, then you discover allegorically the place it was shipped to: the deserts of Libya, the temples of Angkor, and so on. To get the image to bind to its backdrop, everything was processed in 3D," specified the artist. Managed by IRIDAS and orchestrated by 4 Horizons with video technology implemented by VLS, the show required two pairs of Roadie 25Ks projectors positioned edgewise.

The installations that used video mapping, which occupied major sites for the first time, rightly received substantial acclaim from the public. Two members of the Exyzt community attended as guests of honour: architect Philippe Rizzotti and 1024 Architecture. The first of these, Rizzotti, took on the facade of St. Nizier Church, the history of which he retold using overlapping shadow puppets and 3D rendering. The building appeared to mutate continuously and eventually turned into a plant-covered edifice. This metamorphosis, loosely based on the film Un Château dans le ciel, relied on the power of two Christie Roadie HD+30K projectors (2K matrix) deployed by Alabama. The second, 1024 Architecture, dynamically redrew the façade of the Théâtre des Célestins. A 3D plotting, interactive and lyrical, this piece was directed and distorted by the voices of spectators – the designers installed a voice command system available to the public."We developed an interactive program that turns the public's voice into imagery and sound." Produced using "Mad Mapper", 1024's proprietary software, this lyrical "perspective in process" produced by Lighting Process and implemented using technical infrastructure provided by Manganelli, required the installation of two pairs of dual Christie Roadster S+20Ks.

Finally, to nurture the creativity of young artists, the Festival of Lights continues each year to host the work of students in graphic design, video, animation, design, architecture and the visual arts. This year, the city is doubling the space devoted to experimentation. The most prominent of these four sites, La Tour de la Charité, was host to the best works from visual arts schools in the Rhone-Alpes region projected by a Christie Roadster S+20K: La Poudrière, Centre Factory, Emile Cohl, ENAAI, etc. The same site also housed the winners of the architectural projection competition organised by INEO GDF-Suez and technical services provider ETC.

The Festival is an exceptional showcase for the “French Touch” in the areas of lighting and monumental video projection. Exhibitors come to Lyon to be recognised by professionals, the public and the media. And then they move on to other venues...," says Jean-François Zurawick, Event Director and General Coordinator for the Festival.