← Back to program
← Back to program

Jim Campbell (US) → Scattered Light

19:00-24:00, The light installation is running continuously.
  • 3 Dejvice
  • Light installation

About project

At first glance, Jim Campbell’s Scattered Light appears to be a monumental constellation of suspended light bulbs, gently flickering in the darkness. Yet as visitors step back and allow their eyes to adjust, fleeting human figures gradually emerge from the glow – ghostly silhouettes moving silently through space before dissolving once again into an abstract field of light.

The installation transforms moving image into a 3D environment composed of more than 1500 points of light. It captures an everyday scene of people passing through a busy transport hub, visible only from a precise vantage point. With every step the viewer takes, the image fractures, shifts and reassembles itself. By unfolding a two-dimensional image into physical space, Campbell creates a compelling perceptual paradox.

In the context of the festival theme, Dream On!, Scattered Light reflects on the fleeting nature of memory and dreams. Like dream imagery itself, the figures appear both familiar and elusive. The work draws visitors into the space between recognition and uncertainty, where the mind instinctively completes what the eye cannot fully perceive. Within this luminous environment, visitors are invited to question what they truly see – and to consider how much of every image is shaped by their own imagination.

Artist

Jim Campbell (born 1956, Chicago) studied mathematics and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before moving to San Francisco. In the mid-1980s, he shifted from experimental filmmaking to interactive video installations, and in 2000 began working primarily with visual perception and low-resolution imagery. His electronic sculptures and installations established him as one of the leading figures in the use of digital technology as an artistic medium. Campbell employs technologies originally developed for transmitting and storing information to explore the nature of human perception and memory. His work is characterised by low-resolution LED grids that produce pixelated moving images reduced to the threshold of human perception. Operating on the boundary between representation and abstraction, his installations explore the mind's remarkable ability to interpret incomplete information and instinctively “fill in the missing pieces”.

Campbell's work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the International Center of Photography in New York. His works are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), among others. His honours include the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in Multimedia and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Location

General Lázaro Cárdenas Park was established as part of a 1920 urban plan intended to connect Stromovka Park with the gardens of Prague Castle. During the 1970s, monuments donated to Prague by Mexico and Venezuela were installed here. In 2000, part of the park was officially designated and named after General Lázaro Cárdenas del Río, the Mexican general and later president. The monumental scale of Scattered Light makes the park its natural setting. Campbell has long been drawn to outdoor environments and the dialogue between his works and the natural world: the installation premiered in New York's Madison Square Park.

  • With support of

    Prague 6

    • Other installations