As winter twilight settles over Vilnius, the city’s frantic pace dissolves into a meditative stillness. In this softened light, the urban landscape opens up, allowing the quiet moods of the streets – and our own internal reflections – to finally be heard. Starting this Friday, the Vilnius Light Festival transforms St. Catherine’s Church into a sanctuary for reflection. At the heart of the experience is The Bird of a Thousand Voices by internationally acclaimed artist Boris Ackett – a mesmerizing fusion of light and sound designed to be felt rather than merely seen. The installation challenges visitors to explore the delicate boundary between imagination and illusion.
An artist who speaks the language of the senses
Boris Acket, a contemporary artist and composer living in the Netherlands, makes no secret of the fact that he likes to think rationally and experiment at the same time, balancing between structure and uncertainty, leaving space for materials, light, sound, and movement. His art is not an object to be seen, but a state to be entered.
The artist admits that the beginnings of his creative work are linked to electronic music and club culture, which is why sound remains one of the most important elements of all his works to this day.
“Sound and music are the starting point for almost everything we do in the studio,” says Boris Acket. Sometimes it becomes an abstract instrument and forms the basis of the work itself, sometimes it becomes a visually narrative form.
While his work is underpinned by complex engineering, technology never takes center stage; instead, it dissolves into the experience. “The integrity of technology is important to me. If you understand a work of art in the first minute, but it still remains magical and you can watch it endlessly, then you have discovered something real,” says Acket, comparing technology to natural phenomena: water flows downward because of gravity, and in that, there is an infinite simplicity.
The Bird of a Thousand Voices: where myth meets Leonardo da Vinci’s ideas
The Bird of a Thousand Voices, a work embodying man’s desire to fly, is an impressive installation, a 12 x 7 m mechanical structure inspired by the Armenian folk tale The Bird of a Thousand Voices, staged in the performance by Armenian jazz pianist Tigran Hamasyan and director Ruben van Leer.
Inspired by a mythological bird found in various cultures, often symbolizing resurrection and spiritual awakening, Acket weaves together myth, Leonardo da Vinci’s visionary aeronautical sketches, and cutting-edge technology.
“This is a story that transcends language, culture, and origin. Every person dreams of flying,” says the artist. Though Da Vinci’s machines never left the ground, the dream of flight remains a universal, unifying force. The installation becomes a reflection on illusion and belief.
In recent years, Boris Acket has been turning more and more to nature – not as a romanticized image, but as a space for experience and listening. This shift was greatly influenced by his acquaintance with Gordon Hempton, an acoustic ecologist, sound researcher, and documentary filmmaker known worldwide for his efforts to preserve quiet places dominated by natural sounds, and sociologist Ryan van den Born. The artist’s works resemble peculiar contemporary shrines – places of silence, listening, and ritual.
It is no coincidence that The Bird of a Thousand Voices finds its home within the singular sanctuary of a church. Here, technology, sound, light, and imagination merge into a single mystical experience that invites you not to seek answers, but to ask questions. Ultimately, the installation poses the most vital question of all: in what should we believe? Is it in what we see before us, or in the unseen forces we simply feel?
Boris Acket’s works have been presented and evaluated at numerous international events: Mutek MX in Mexico City, Dark Matter in Berlin, Amsterdam: Stedelijk and Van Gogh museums, Amsterdam Dance Event, Holland Festival, NXT Museum, Milan Salone del Mobile in Milan, Paris Fashion Week, and elsewhere.
At the Vilnius Light Festival on January 23–25, Boris Ackett’s installation The Bird of a Thousand Voices will invite you to listen and believe for a moment in what is fragile and temporary.
The festival program is available on the website lightfestival.lt and in the new mobile app – App Store https://bit.ly/vlf_app or Google Play https://bit.ly/vlf_app1.
