Brief to all artists participating in the Amsterdam Light Festival 2014/2015

1. !
Welcome to the Amsterdam Light Festival!
You have downloaded this Briefing because you want to submit your Art Work for
the 2014 – 2015 edition of the Festival. Great! We encourage artists and designers
from all disciplines and nationalities to submit.
However, as we expect many submissions, please follow this Briefing precisely, so
our judging panel and artistic committee are able to assess your work and make a
balanced decision.
I. The Motto of the Amsterdam Light Festival 2014 – 2015
The festival expects over 750,000 visitors from Amsterdam and from many other
places around the world. It is our aim to offer everyone a great experience: young
and old, tourist and citizen, experienced and novice lovers of art in the public
space.
We celebrate The Life in the City and we showcase Art Works that offer a new
and unexpected view on Amsterdam, its history, its architecture, its
entrepreneurial spirit, its people and its future.
Our Motto is this year “A Bright City” and you are encouraged to interpret
that anyhow you like, keeping in mind that we are particularly interested in Art
Works that are a statement on today’s metropolis, our urban lifestyle, and the
incredible relevance of cities to the advancement of human culture. Cities are
places where people broaden their mind and learn from the past as well as about
the future.
It is also very important that your Art Work relates to the specifics of Amsterdam.
Being a historic city that has always welcomed people from all backgrounds and
from all over the world, Amsterdam is a densely populated capital that bubbles
and buzzes of activity, thoughts and new ideas. At the same time, the historic
urban weave of Amsterdam, that seamlessly fuses roads and squares with an
extensive system of canals and rivers, continues to define the way Amsterdammers
use and transform their urban space.
We would like to ask you to pay special attention to water, and how your Art Work
interacts with it, especially when you decide to submit for the Water Colors boat

2. !
route. Although there are limitations, in principle it is possible to submit a concept
of an Art Work that is floating on the water.
We would also like to ask you to create an Art Work that is of a monumental,
single-gesture kind of simplicity, especially for the Water Colors Route. It is
important that some works can be enjoyed even when viewing from far.
II. The Selection Procedure. Deadline: 1 March 2014
The Amsterdam Light Festival expects a large number of submissions. Read
carefully below as following our guidelines increases your chance of winning!
1. Judging. This edition’s Judging Panel is a group of experienced and
distinguished professionals in the fields of Art, Design and Urbanism.
Chairman of the judging panel is Rogier van der Heide, Artistic Director of the
Amsterdam Light Festival. Other confirmed members include Jennifer Keesmaat,
Chief Urban Planner of the City of Toronto, Cyril Zammit, Director of the Dubai
Design Days, and Marloes Krijnen, Director of FOAM, the international
photography museum in Amsterdam. A total of six professional judges from the
field of Art, Media, Urbanism and Design will form the panel, and the remaining
names will be confirmed soon on our website.
Before the judging panel reviews the submissions, our Artistic & Technical
Committee assesses the technical feasibility, basic artistic eligibility and value for
money of all submissions in order to announce 75 Finalists of the competition. The
judging panel will review all Finalists.
2. Judging Criteria. All submitted works will be assessed by our Technical and
Artistic Committee regarding compliance with this briefing (10 points) technical
feasiblity (10 points) and originality and innovation (10 points). Around 75 Finalists
will be selected and invited to submit more elaborate material (Finalists will be
contacted separately about this). The Judging Panel will assess compliance with
this Briefing and relevance of the Art Work in an urban and societal context for all
Finalists. It is at the discretion of the Judging Panel to select the winning Art
Works that are going to be realised. We do not communicate about this with the
artists.

3. !
3. Technical Feasibility. Light Art brings together science, technology, creativity
and art. On top of that, all works at the Amsterdam Light Festival are staged in the
public space, and that requires rigid constructions. Add to this the stormy, wet
and cold weather of Amsterdam in winter, and you will appreciate how important
it is that we can be confident about the sturdiness of your Art Work. Do not
underestimate the importance of the technical feasibility of your Art Work.
4. Deadline. You have to complete your submission by 23:59 hours Amsterdam
Time (GMT+1) on 1 March 2014. Late entries are not accepted. A detailed
planning of the entire procedure can be found at the end of this document.
5. Cost of Submission. The last edition of the Amsterdam Light Festival attracted
over 300 submissions. This large number of concepts was a testimony to our
success, but at the same time it imposed the Foundation with very substantial
costs to handle the submission and all its logistics. To cover some of these costs,
all submitting Artists pay a non-refundable submission fee of 21 euro plus VAT. If
this amount causes any issues for you, please try first to find a sponsor yourself.
Payment can be settled online by credit card or Paypal. If you are registered as a
company, foundation or partnership, the governmental VAT (value added tax) that
we have to charge to you is likely to be deductable on your tax form.
6. Categories. The Amsterdam Light Festival consists out of two large exhibitions:
a walking tour called “Illuminade” along Art Works that are staged in a park-like
setting, and a boat route called “Water Colors” that runs along Art Works that
are floating on the water or that are installed right next to it.
You can submit any one Art Work for one category only. Double entries (ie
submitting the same work twice to compete in both categories) disqualify both
submissions. You can – of course – submit as many Art Works as you like!
7. Originality of your Art Work. Though we do not require you to create a
new Art Work, and we occasionally staged existing works at past editions of the
Festival, we strongly encourage you to create a new concept for the Amsterdam
Light Festival that has not been seen before, and that has not appeared in print or
digital media before either.

4. !
8. Form of submission. Only Art Works submitted through our on-line system
that can be reached via http://www.amsterdamlightfestival.com/cfc will be
considered by the judges. The exception is any artist who is invited at the
discretion of the Artistic Director. Please do not request to submit your work
otherwise than through the on-line form.
Your submission consists out of two Powerpoint slides that are based on the
template you have downloaded along with this briefing. You will upload this
Powerpoint file during the on-line submission procedure. You will add additional
info by filling out the on-line form. Submissions are required to be in English.
II. Conditions
By submitting for the 2014 -2015 edition of the Amsterdam Light Festival, you
enter an agreement between the Foundation Amsterdam Light Festival and
yourself, and you agree with the conditions and descriptions in this Briefing. These
conditions are meant to enable the Festival to judge all submissions equally, to
give opportunities to emerging talent and to work with the media and press in the
best possible way, for the Artists as well as the Festival.
1. Ownership. You agree that if your Art Work will be selected for the Amsterdam
Light Festival, you grant full and transferable ownership of the physical Art Work to
the Foundation Amsterdam Light Festival. You will remain the owner of your
intellectual property (the Concept, or the Design of your Art Work) yourself.
Exception: If you prefer to retain ownership of the physical Art Work and make
your work available on a rental basis including full maintenance and service during
the Festival, then this is possible, but should reflect in a lower cost of the work.
Please indicate this choice in the text of your submission and pick a cost category
that reflects the rental price including maintenance and operation.
2. Publication Rights. If you are selected as Finalist, you grant the Amsterdam
Light Festival full rights to publish your Art Work at no cost. These rights are
exclusive until the opening of the 2014 – 2015 Amsterdam Light Festival and
continue non-exclusively after that for an unlimited period of time. Finalists agree
not to publish their work themselves before the opening of the Festival.

5. !
4. A permanent place for your Art Work. The Foundation Amsterdam Light
Festival will do everything within their possibilities to find a permanent and public
location for the realized Art Works after the Festival. If such opportunity arises for
your Art Work, we will agree on a separate and individual arrangement of
additional royalties and credits associated with that.
5. Technology. You are strongly advised to use digital lighting technology (“LED”
or “OLED”) and if your concept does not allow that, you have to indicate so in
your submission. An explanation is then required. In any case, you will then have
to indicate power consumption in Watt for your Art Work. Furthermore, we
encourage artists to submit works that include sensors, cameras or other ways to
interact with the environment and the visitors.
6. Finance. The budget category that you choose when you submit for the Water
Colors (see the submission form) includes everything. Your estimate covers all
materials and labour needed for your Art Work, as well as an estimate of the
labour cost required on site, and – if you desire so – your own fee. The only item
you do not include is the cost of shipping / moving anything to Amsterdam. For
the Illuminade, all Art Works will have the same maximum budget, see the on-line
submission form.
7. Technical support. The Amsterdam Light Festival is proud to give the selected
Artists the best possible experience and excellent support is part of that. Winners
will be assigned an Artistic and Technical Specialist from our team, who will help
the Artist with the detailing of the design. You are required to agree with this way
of working and it is at the sole discretion of our Technical Specialist to decide that
you can deliver your work “turn key”, that means without any support from our
side.
8. Media cooperation. We are a well-known Festival and draw a lot of attention
world wide. We can offer you a lot in that sense including exclusive interviews with
the international press and gatherings with media in Amsterdam. By submitting
your work, you agree to cooperate as much as you can with our activities in the
field of public relations, publicity, social media and our internet presence.
9. Your Submission
In the on-line submission form, please fill out all required information carefully. If
you need help, please email us: frans@amsterdamlightfestival.com. We will only
answer questions regarding how-to-submit. Please do not ask us any other
questions as your message will be ignored, sorry.

6. !
10. Further Questions
We believe that all Artists who submit should have equal information from us.
Therefore, please join our Facebook Group
http://www.amsterdamlightfestival.com/facebook/cfc where our Artistic and
Technical Committee answers your questions. We are looking forward to inspiring
dialogues! Please note that questions and requests regarding your Art Work itself,
uploads of images of your Art Work or requests to submit additional information
will be ignored and deleted from the Page.
And now: off you go!
We are much looking forward to your concepts, ideas and designs, and we wish
you best of luck with your submission. The Amsterdam Light Festival is an exciting
celebration of Art, the City, Innovation and Design, and our entire team hopes
sincerely you will be a part of it this year!
Best regards
Rogier van der Heide
Artistic Director
Amsterdam Light Festival
Encl:
• planning of the selection procedure and execution of the Festival
• powerpoint template for your submission
• preliminary plans (maps) of the Festival
[v1.2]

7. !
Appendix: Planning
For your information, please find below the planning of the 2014 - 2015 edition of
the Amsterdam Light Festival. The opening date of the Festival will be in
December 2014 and will be announced as soon as we can. The Festival will last for
around 50 days. Please consider the dates below final. Late entries for both
deadlines will not be accepted.
14 January 2014 Call for Concepts is open
01 March 2014 Deadline for submitting your Art Work to the Call for
Concepts
08 March 2014 Briefing to the 75 Finalists
01 April 2014 Deadline for the Finalists to submit their detailed proposals
15 April 2014 Announcement of the Selected Art Works
21 April - 31 May 2014 Viewing of locations with Selected Artists in Amsterdam
15 June 2014 Principle Agreements settled with Selected Artists