Madrid International Festival of Light

Created by Gonzalo Borondo specifically for LuzMadrid 2026 in Glorieta de San Víctor— an urban landscape that housed the workers of the city’s former abattoir—Redentora (Redeemer) recreates a large zoetrope that produces moving images of animal victims and their executioners. The installation reflects on silenced violence, the sacred vocation and ritual as a communal gathering.

Synaxcape is an interactive exchange between body, light, sound and architecture which takes the form of a geometric sculpture located at Central de Diseño – DIMAD. Created by students on the Interior Design degree at UDIT as part of the LuzMadrid 2026 Emerging Lights programme, the  installation comprises a collective experience that redefines the relationship between the individual and the system.

Post.flora is an installation created for Central de Diseño by students from the Madrid School of Design, as part of LuzMadrid 2026’s Emerging Lights programme. Using real plants connected to sensors, and without any human intervention, AI generates visual forms which prolong the plant’s existence in a digital realm. The installation invites us to rethink the way we perceive nature in our technological environment.

Luminal is an installation created for Central de Diseño – DIMAD by students of the Interior Design degree at IED Madrid for LuzMadrid 2026’s Emerging Lights programme. Designed around the concept of the “liminal”—a space of transition—, it offers a visual and auditory interpretation of the city. Seven translucent layers, each with its own light and sound system, form an ethereal and ever-changing urban landscape.

EntreLUZ  is an installation created by undergraduate Interior Design students at the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) as part of LuzMadrid 2026’s Emerging Lights programme. Designed specifically for its site at Central de Diseño – DIMAD, it takes us on a journey through layers of fabric that make light tangible and transform our perception of it as we move along. It’s an experience that explores light from a physical and tactile perspective.

Cluster is an immersive audiovisual installation by Barcelona-based studio Playmodes which uses light instruments to reinterpret the architecture of Nave Una of Matadero Madrid, transforming it into a visual and sonic language. Based on synchronised oscillator systems, it generates patterns that transform the space into an experience which takes visitors on a sensory journey through abstract geometry.

E.T.E.R.N.A. is a video mapping project created specifically for LuzMadrid 2026 by Camille Gross and Olivier Magermans. It transforms the Neo-Mudéjar architecture of the Casa del Reloj building into a living organism as time ceases to be measured and becomes energy in constant motion. Through light, image and sound, the installation allows us to experience a metamorphosis between the organic and the cosmic.

Trànsit, located in Nave de Terneras at Matadero Madrid, is an installation by Studio Animal and Cabosanroque which transforms an everyday object into art. It consists of 49 traffic signals whose lights react playfully to the rhythm of sound, creating a sensory experience that envelops viewers and invites them on a journey between movement and stillness which questions the rhythms and codes that underpin urban life.

Paisajes Tendidos (Hanging Landscapes) is an installation created by Luzinterruptus for LuzMadrid 2026. Along the Explanada Negra of Matadero Madrid, over one hundred white sheets which have been hung and illuminated are moved by the wind and form a large, walkable clothesline that calls to mind the gruelling and invisible work of the washerwomen who toiled for decades along the banks of the River Manzanares. It’s a sensory experience that connects body, urban landscape and memory.

Nager la nuit is an installation created by French artist Cédric Le Borgne for Dam Number 8 on the River Manzanares. Suspended in the air, large metal mesh sculptures shaped like koi carp, birds and other luminous creatures spark a poetic exchange between the river and the sky. It’s a contemplative experience that invites us to rethink the urban landscape, a landscape which is also created by the relationship between human beings and nature.

Soleil Nuit, Persée is an installation by French artist and lighting designer Sébastien Lefèvre. Located in IES Cervantes, one of the city’s most historic schools, and consisting of two opposing discs—the sun and the night—which are covered with thousands of mirrors, the installation transforms and interacts with its surroundings throughout the day, changing in natural light and in the dark, when it becomes a radiant star.

Firmamento (Heavens) is an installation designed specifically for its site in Cibeles Palace as part of LuzMadrid 2026 by the Italian studio Quiet Ensemble, in collaboration with the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO). It is a large-scale geometric structure that translates cosmic data into a choreography of light and sound, integrating a key element of Madrid’s imagery—its sky—into the city’s institutional heart.

Flux is a kinetic light sculpture by the French collective Collectif Scale, installed in the Plaza de la Villa. Using motorised movements, it produces constantly transforming lines of light with rotating helices, in a direct exchange with Grégory Sémah’s original sound composition. It’s a visual and acoustic experience that breathes new life into the historic space, transforming rhythm into form and light into living matter.

Deriva Térmica (Thermal Drift) is an interactive installation by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer located at Beti Jai Pelota Court. A thermal imaging camera transforms visitors’ body heat into luminous flows that disperse throughout the space. The installation reappropriates a technology associated with control, transforming it into a cultural and participatory experience—a reflection on presence, image and power within a historic building restored for the city.