Street Lights is an interactive installation by Spanish artist Alicia Framis on Viktor-Adler-Markt. The work, installed on site for one year, was created at the invitation of KÖR Wien for the exhibition FOKUS FAVORITEN in the tenth district.

The artwork does not become visible before dusk. Framis has set five street lamps commonly used in Vienna’s public space so that the illumination changes as soon as people embrace in their light field. The use of cameras and complex programming ensure that the light adapts to this intimate moment. An inscription invites people to engage in a complex play with the lighting situation: “If you hug in this place, your hug will change the street lighting.” / “Wenn ihr euch an diesem Platz umarmt, wird eure Umarmung die Straßenbeleuchtung ändern.”

The artist’s works deal with social and sociopolitical issues. Framis often conceives objects, places, or fashion items relating to social relationships. Bizarre interventions in everyday contexts create poetic moments. Framis’s pneumatically moved clothes on life-size dolls have recently garnered a lot of attention at Art Basel. Her works tie in with a “relational aesthetics” in the sense of Nicolas Bourriaud (1998) by offering people spaces for action and interaction.

In Vienna, Framis wants to give people’s feelings and intimate relationships a place again. Against the background of increasing alienation and the coldness of digital relationships, she encourages physical contacts and provides a surprising medium for interaction.