December Light

A poem on a bare wall, a beautiful quote on a monument, a facade turned into a movie screen...

Kroft&Smids consists of Karina Kroft and Remko Smids. During the first corona lockdown in the spring of 2020, when everything came to a standstill, Karina Kroft and Remko Smids projected the towering text "Only in darkness can you see the stars" onto a high-rise building in Leeuwarden. This was the first gesture in a series of seventy consecutive nights featuring hopeful projections at various locations in and around Leeuwarden. A new love was born: light projections in public spaces to encourage, surprise, and move people.

Since that first spontaneous action on March 28, 2020, they have completed various projects, including daily projections for the Jonge Harten Festival in Groningen ('21 and '22), Midzomernachtlicht, which featured ten projections as part of Bosklab ('22), two Praamverhalen, Peer Gynt ('21), and Koning Lear ('23). At the end of 2022, Kroft&Smids went international, creating the Nobel Light Walk for Nobel Week Lights in Stockholm, in the week leading up to the Nobel Prize ceremony. Last year, they served as the artistic directors for the first light festival Licht op Drachten, and in early 2024, under the name Winterljocht, they created poetic routes in Harlingen, Sloten, and Dokkum.

And now, for the fifth time, they are creating Decemberlicht, a light trail through the dark streets of the Leeuwarden city center.

TIP! Follow the blue lantern light...