Join Tan Jet Lyn at Marina Bay as she explores how public art transforms Singapore’s nightscape into a glowing canvas of dreams, community, and connection.

This year’s edition marks the 11th run of the festival, which has grown to become a platform for collective reflection and shared urban experiences. Photo credit: Tristan Low

Ever felt like the city could use a little bit more magic after dark? You might just find it at i Light Singapore 2025, where the city comes together to reconnect through creativity.

i Light Singapore, Asia’s leading sustainable light festival, lights up Marina Bay and nearby precincts every year. Since its inception in 2010, the festival has showcased light art installations created by local and international artists. Designed with energy-efficient lighting and eco-friendly materials, the event invites visitors to experience not only art, but also the vibrant cityscape around them. Over the years, the festival has also championed sustainability, encouraging communities to rethink lifestyles and embrace more environmentally conscious habits.

This year’s theme, “To Gather,” celebrates togetherness, shared experiences, and how a community can be built one interaction at a time. With immersive works from both local and international artists lighting up Marina Bay, i Light 2025 goes beyond visual spectacle to pose a deeper question: How can art bring us closer?

Public Art as a Connector

Jason Chen, Festival Director of i Light Singapore 2025 and Director of Place Management at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), reflects on the role public art plays in shaping social connections.

“It allows us to engage the viewer, in terms of what we want to communicate through the artworks,” Mr Chen said. “These artworks allow conversations to take place between people, and I think this is the way for us to draw the community in.”

With digital fatigue and post-pandemic disconnection lingering, this year’s theme invites visitors to step out from behind screens and reconnect in person. Mr Chen explains that the choice of red, symbolising love, passion, and the lifeblood of human connection, highlights the festival’s aim to foster conversations and shared experiences.

“We encourage the public to come down in groups of more than two people if possible, because there’s a way for them to interact with each other,” he said. “That’s certainly our way of making ‘To Gather’ manifest itself to this year’s festival.”

Flowers that respond to your presence

Among the standout pieces this year is Take a walk through the meadow with me by Singaporean artists Megan Tan, 22, and Tan Shao Xuan, 23, who are both pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in London. Created while the duo were studying abroad, the work was born out of homesickness and a shared reflection on what “home” represents.

“We were discussing home and belonging, and what it meant to us,” Ms Tan said. “We realised that the core value of it was really the familiar faces around us, and the community that we had in Singapore.”

The interactive garden uses flowers that light up and emit different sounds depending on the viewers’ positions in the space. Designed to glow more brightly and sound louder as more people enter the installation, the piece draws attention to how individual presence contributes to a collective experience. According to Ms Tan, the intention is to remind visitors that they “play a very integral part in a larger sense of community,” as the installation relies on their presence to fully come to life. “Without them, this installation wouldn’t really work as it is,” she added.

A single flower in the installation lights up, with others awaiting interaction from passers-by. Photo credit: Tristan Low

While the visuals and interactivity may initially draw people in, the artists hope that visitors leave with something more lasting: a renewed appreciation for the people around them. “We really hope that visitors walk away feeling a sense of wonder and belonging to the community,” said Ms Tan. “We hope you bring your loved ones or your friends to come together and take a walk through the meadow with them.”

A bridge built from 1,000 dreams

Visitors may also find themselves crossing Bridge of 1,000 Dreams, a luminous installation spanning Cavenagh Bridge created by Dutch design studio, Studio Toer.

Castor Bours, 41, founder of Studio Toer, shared that the piece is literally and metaphorically built on collective aspirations. “The whole piece is created together [by] a thousand people,” he said. “All this effort, and all the ideas and dreams behind the works that they make on the sticks, is collected and combined together to create the whole piece.”

Cavenagh Bridge transformed into a glowing walkway for Bridge of 1,000 Dreams. Photo credit: Tristan Low

Illuminated by UV light, the artworks on each stick glow at night, revealing a sea of personal hopes and expressions, many of them contributed by children during workshops organised by United Overseas Bank (UOB) to mark its 90th anniversary. “If you pass by their work and you see [each] individual stick, you see there’s a person behind it and… their vision,” Mr Bours said. 

Individual dreams and drawings by participants are displayed on glowing sticks, each telling its own story. Photo credit: Tristan Low

As visitors cross the glowing span, they are reminded not only of the beauty of individual expression, but also of the collective imagination that shapes a city. “Everyone has their own ideas and dreams,” said Bours. “They created the bridge together, but they also gathered a lot of ideas in one piece.”

Art as Everyday Connection

“Art is in our everyday life,” Mr Chen affirms. He adds that understanding the stories behind artworks helps deepen this appreciation. “In this way, we can then better appreciate our life and the different experiences that come with it.”

i Light Singapore also serves as a platform for local and international artists, including young talents, to showcase creativity and foster community engagement and networking. Mr Chen hopes visitors leave the festival with a renewed sense of connection and passion.

“It is the emotional connection, [passion, and enthusiasm] that we hope to generate in visitors to i Light this year,” he said, hoping that visitors experiencing the festival will leave with the belief that “life is filled with excitement, fun, and love,” and that together, we can “continue to build a meaningful and relevant society.”

Ultimately, these installations are about more than just pretty lights. They act as metaphors for connection and a reminder of how much stronger, louder, and more beautiful things become when people come together. 

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