Spectacular lasers will light up the night skies over Newtownards and Strangford Lough this week (14th – 17th March) when Global Rainbow premieres in Northern Ireland.

The large scale outdoor laser projection created by American artist, Yvette Mattern, will be visible for miles from dusk until midnight on four consecutive nights and is being brought to Northern Ireland by Ards Borough Council and Arts Council of Northern Ireland, in conjunction with the arts production agency, Amino.

The event signals 100 days to go to the opening of the London 2012 Festival in Northern Ireland. The Festival will host one of its major opening events in Derry-Londonderry with the Peace One Day concert on 21 June and continue throughout the summer with more than 14 major events, including Land of Giants and FLAGS celebrating NI2012. The Festival will close on 9 September and can be followed at  www.london2012.com/festival.

The Global Rainbow lasers will be beamed from Scrabo Tower in Newtownards down the eastern shore of Strangford Lough and represent the spectrum of the traditional seven colours of the rainbow. The installation is designed to be projected across large open sites, particularly densely populated areas, but this is the first time it will have been seen over a scenic landscape – and local amateur photographers are being invited to capture the dramatic results for a photographic competition.

“This will be an amazing sight, coming from Scrabo Tower, one of Northern Ireland’s iconic landmarks and stretching out over Strangford Lough. Photographers will have any number of vantage points from which to take images of the rainbow, the best of which will be shown in an exhibition this June to mark the run up to the 2012 Olympic Games,” said Mayor of Ards, Councillor Mervyn Oswald. “Ards Borough Council is delighted to bring Global Rainbow to Northern Ireland along with our partners in the Arts Council and our thanks also go to the Northern Ireland Environment Agency for so kindly giving us permission to use Scrabo Tower as the projection point”.

Welcoming the Global Rainbow display to the north, the Culture and Sports Minister Carál Ní Chuilín said:

“This is an exciting opportunity for the people of Newtownards and residents around Strangford Lough to witness this internationally acclaimed laser installation show, Global Rainbow, in their local community.  Everyone should grab their cameras to capture this amazing spectacle.  Global Rainbow will be a wonderful opening to the impressive and exciting programme of events for the Cultural Olympiad and the London 2012 Festival which will take place across the north of Ireland."

Global Rainbow had its UK premiere against the backdrop of the North Tyneside coastline at the end of February. From there the lasers travelled to their next projection site over Preston in north west England and then on to Newtownards in Northern Ireland. The laser installation has been designated as an official Cultural Olympiad project by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) and forms the main opening event for each region’s Cultural Olympiad year. Global Rainbow is produced in the UK by amino and Scrabo Tower is used as the projection point with the kind permission of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

For details of the photographic competition and how to enter, visit  www.ardsarts.com. The closing date for entries is 4pm on Saturday 31st March 2012.

Notes to Editor

Global Rainbow was initially created for projection in New York City on 19 January 2009 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) where it was projected from the pyramidal top of the 14 Wall Street skyscraper in downtown Manhattan (the former penthouse of J Paul Getty). The beams extended from Brooklyn Bridge to the east and the Hudson River to the west, passing over Ground Zero. Subsequently, it has been shown in Berlin in February 2010 where, over nine evenings, it formed the signature event for the annual Transmediale festival of media art and was seen by several million people. In October 2010 it was the signature event at La Novela Festival in Toulouse. In September 2011, it formed the signature event for the launch of the new programme season at Le Lieu Unique, the national centre for contemporary art in Nantes.

The London 2012 Festival is a twelve-week festival of the arts, running parallel to the Olympic and Paralympic Games taking place in London. It is the finale of the four year Cultural Olympiad and intends to celebrate excellence in the arts as the world’s leading athletes are on track and field. It also celebrates the Games outside of London and offers the public an opportunity to join in. The London 2012 Festival will take place here from 21st June to 9th September and will bring some of the world’s leading artists to Northern Ireland, but also will provide a world stage for some of our best artists at home. The Festival champions the best new work by local and international artists on the world stage including the animated magic of Joel Simon's MACROPOLIS to Brian Irvine and John McIlduff's 'unusual census' with NEST. London 2012 Festival in Northern Ireland will close with a handover to Derry-Londonderry City of Culture 2013 on 9 September.

Yvette Mattern is a New York and Berlin based visual artist whose work has an emphasis on video and film, which frequently intersects performance, public art and sculpture. Her work has been exhibited in Berlin, Vienna, Dakar, New York, Venice, Rome, Chicago and Amsterdam.

Global Rainbow is produced in the UK by amino, a contemporary arts production agency based in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The lasers used to create Global Rainbow were built and are operated by Lightwave International, one of the world’s leading laser light show companies, who are based in Pittsburgh, USA.

For further information contact:

Aiken PR 02890663000 - Paul McCarthy - paul@aikenpr.com / Lyn Sheridan  - lyn@aikenpr.comArds Borough Council 028 9182 4021 -  ursula.mezza@ards-council.gov.uk