ARTWORKS 2026

We are proud to welcome you to a sneak peek and description of the artist's artwork, already now. Their creations and preparations are an ongoing phenomenon all the way up until the festival starts, so there are no images of their final site-specific installations available before the day of the opening ceremony, September 4th. 

00  |  MARMORIS

BY ILLUMINOS UK, MATT AND ROB VALE  – UK

Fishingboats with many lives
In Marmoris, the shiny, marbled surface of the sea is evoked as light dances across the water from the artwork’s reflections. The English brothers Matt and Rod Vale have, in collaboration with Smögen fisherman Dennis Andersson, transformed his fishing boat Gullbris into a moving octopus artwork with streaks of light through the harbor. Wavy movements flow across the bow while the octopus's eye watches you closely. The ship pulsates, and the color-changing octopus is reflected in the dark water.

01A  |  PLANKTON SHAPES

BY MIGUEL CHEVALIER AND ANNA FRONT – FRANCE AND SWEDEN 

Plankton in the eyes of children
28 students from Smögen's School are being inspired and guided by the French artist Miguel Chevalier and Smögen’s School teacher Anna Front. They studens are aged aged 5 – 7 and will create an “Underwater Gallery” that presents a collection of colorful plankton formations.

01B  |  PLANKTON SHAPES

BY EMMA RÖNNHOLMEN – FINLAND 

Dumped stuff given new life
The new light art installation “Bära eller Brista (Eng: Make or Break) directs our eyes towards what’s under our feet when we walk on the Smögenbryggan. In the water below the surface, the artist has created an illuminated organism, whose skin – the water surface – reflects its breathing and its blood vessels that reach up from the depths. 

The work was created from collected materials from Sotenäs Marina Återvinningscentral (Eng: Sotenäs Marine Recycling Center) and is inspired by seaweed and all the unknown that is around us.

02  |  CAST AWAY

BY ANNI LAUKKA – FINLAND

Light and shadow in interaction
Cast Away is a sculptural light installation that addresses ocean plastic pollution and its consequences. The sculpture is constructed from materials such as plastic waste and discarded fishing nets, collected from the Swedish coastline from Stockholm to Strömstad by the sailing project 100% SunWindWater and Sotenäs Marine Recycling Center.
 
Using light, the sculpture creates a shadow image in which the figure of a child and a bird caught in a net emerge. The shadow reveals what would otherwise remain unseen; the consequences embedded in the materials and the impact of human activity.

The child represents future generations and humanity’s vulnerability, while the entangled bird reflects the tangible fragility of animals and nature. Through the shadow, the installation expands beyond its physical form, and its meaning emerges in the interaction between the light, the room, and the viewer.

Cast Away emphasizes the artist’s material-based practice, in which discarded materials are given new form and meaning.

03  |  Ö I HAVET (ISLAND IN THE SEA)

BY EMMA-KARA NILSSON – SWEDEN

An island in transformation
On the island, the forces of nature and the imprint of humanity meet in a slow conversation, shaped by wind, water, memories and stories. Through an experimental and investigative approach, the island is explored as a place and symbol.

The result takes the form of a site-specific installation in constant change. Like an island, the work is influenced by the passage of time, by the surroundings and by the stories that arise in the encounter with the place. The island becomes the common denominator – a gathering point where past, present and future can coexist.

Through analogue and digital expressions, with gobo projections, video, light and shadow play, a space for reflection and presence is created.

Emma-Kara Nilsson has worked together with students Tilda, Maja, Lovi and Paul from the Performing Arts School in Gothenburg.

04  |  QUARTET

BY ANDREW SCOTT – SWEDEN

Become a part of the artwork
Quartet is an interactive audiovisual installation in which four persons from the audience can participate. Each person can control what they see and hear with a simple (but deceptively complex) set of 4 levers and 4 buttons. The visuals pay tribute to old-fashioned video synthesis whilst the sound is an homage to the acoustic possibilities of West Coast synthesis. 

This work gives the participant an intense way of engaging with not only the work of art but also the other people engaged and interacting simultaneously with the audiovisual installation.

05  |  IMMERSIVE RIVER 

BY THEODORA "DORINA" SALTI – GREECE

Swim in a river of light
The Immersive River is an interactive, immersive installation by Theodora Salti in collaboration with Andrew Scott, created for the Island of Light Festival in Smögen, Sweden. Blending responsive visual projections, ambient soundscapes, and elements of immersive theatre, the work transforms the surrounding landscape into a living river environment.

Guided by Árrotu, the River Spirit, visitors become part of the story through the senses of touch, sight, and sound, connecting them to the creatures that appear on the cliff before them. By interacting with tactile materials inspired by river creatures, they can influence the creatures' movement. As the story evolves, the river responds dynamically, creating a shared experience where humans, materials, and digital powers intertwine.

At its core, The Immersive River is an invitation to reconnect with the natural world through play, participation, and imagination. The installation encourages reflection on the beauty, fragility, and importance of rivers and the life they sustain, carrying a message of ecological awareness, care, and river protection.

06  |  SHINING FIELDS 

BY THOSE GUYS LIGHT – LATVIA

Between wind, breath, and thoughts
What if the night had dreams of its own - strange, glowing, and full of motion? Shining Fields invites you to experience that vision come to life.

Over 400 tall light reeds, arranged like wild stalks in an open field, pulse with shifting waves of color. A coordinated lightshow flows through the space, accompanied by a rich, layered soundscape. Light and sound move in sync, creating a calm and rhythmic atmosphere - something between wind, breath, and thought.

The reeds are placed in a natural, free formation, as if the landscape grew them on its own.  From close up, the experience feels immersive and almost otherworldly. From a distance, the entire installation appears to glow and move, somewhere between reality and imagination.

07  |  POST NATURAL: LIVING PLANKTON 

BY MIGUEL CHEVALIER – FRANCE

Magic with the smallest creatures of the sea
A monumental digital ecosystem projected directly onto Smögen’s pink granite. Inspired by plankton – the ocean’s blue lung – a scenery emerges at the intersection of nature, myths, science, and technology.

08  |  NARCISUS PRIVATE PARKING 

BY ERIC LANGENDOEN – NETHERLANDS

Fasten your seatbelt…
Narcissus Privat Parking is connected to the mythological story of Echo and Narcissus. Moving light reflections in car mirrors, a soundscape in which delay plays a leading role, and elements that satisfy our need to see ourselves reflected. An installation about impossible love and fleeting encounters in a parking lot. Viewers visit the reconstruction of a crash that may or may not have happened.

09  |  ANIMISTIC

BY ANTON DICKINSON AND CRAIG MORRISON – UK (WALES)

One with nature
Animism is the belief that the natural world is alive, conscious, and interconnected. Through projection, light, and movement, the work transforms the space into an immersive environment. Led by a Light Shaman, the audience is invited into a heightened state of attunement, where they become part of a living landscape.

10  |  SYMBIOSIS

BY ALEKSANDRA STRATIMIROVIC – SWEDEN

In symbiosis with Smögen
Symbiosis is any close, long-term relationship between two different species.
My relationship with Smögen is one of enduring symbiosis. It began in 2019 through Island of Light and my collaboration with Dulce Sales Ahlberg, but over the years it has evolved into something more intricate. Year after year, this place calls me back to breathe its salt-filled air, to immerse myself in the water, to let the wind sweep through me, to reconnect with dear friends, and to continue my creative journey within the magical world of Island of Light. With every return, the roots grow deeper, while the branches continue to expand.

My new work for Island of Light 2026 emerges from this ongoing exchange, a living conversation between myself, the landscape, and the local community. It is a relationship that continues to inspire, transform, and nourish me.

11  |  LISTENING

BY ROBERT SOCHACKI – POLAND

A landscape of conversation
Every place has its own rhythm. The sea, the wind, stone, light, weather, living beings, and human presence never exist separately. What we hear, what we see, and what we are able to name, emerge through their continuous correspondence. Landscape is not what surrounds us. It is the form these relationships take. 

This projection begins with listening. Not listening for sounds, but listening for the relationships that make a landscape possible. 

Standing before a rock that has existed far beyond the scale of human history changes the way we understand presence. The rock is not a projection surface or a monument within the landscape. It is a material presence carrying a duration that exceeds human memory. It does not represent time. It carries time. 

12  |  CINEMA ON THE ROCKS

FILMS AND SLIDESHOWS EVERY NIGHT

Movie theatre with a rock as the screen
Welcome to our unique natural cinema where we will screen a variety of films and slideshows during the festival – onto a unique and massive "rock screen" of Smögen.

Find the film titles below. A detailed night-by-night program with screening times will be posted on our social media:

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– NATURE: A CALL FOR RECONCILIATION
  By Yann Arthus-Bertrand and The Good Planet Foundation

– HIDDEN COLOURS OF SMÖGEN
  By Voice of the Ocean Foundation and Dykarklubben Kleven

– THE SALTIEST COAST OF SWEDEN
  By Stefan Edman, Peter Muld and Lisa Sihlberg

– PLANKTON BY NATURE
  By Sailing4Science and researcher Erik Selander

– UNDER THE SURFACE
  By Alex Dawson

– 100% OCEAN ARTIVISM
  By Julia Maldonado and Bjorn Bertoft 

100  |  100% SUN WIND WATER

BY JULIA MALDONADO AND BJORN BERTOFT

A salute to toxic-free Ocean Graffiti
28-year-old graffiti artist Julia Maldonado from the island of Cozumel in the Gulf of Mexico popped up in Stockholm. We met, and our boat was offered to her as a canvas for art - with the condition to paint only with a new toxic-free coating available in only three colors - black, grey, and orange.

Julia's idea: Bring reality from the deep ocean to the surface so people can see and learn from it.
We tend to look at the beautiful blue ocean with excitement, but turn away from what we do under the surface - killing it with overfishing, chemicals, trash, wastewater, and sound pollution. Her art pinpoints the fact that toxic coatings painted onto millions of underwater hulls along our coasts for decades has shown hazardous consequences on marine biodiversity.

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The 100% SunWindWater project is displayed as an open daytime installation with the boat on land and a pop-up art gallery on the Smögenbryggan in cooperation with the Sailing4Science concept.

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