Today we return with memories to the exceptional tour - "Uczta u Sanah", where during the last concert of the tour, at Torwar in Warsaw, we had the unique opportunity to talk to lighting designer Tomasz Sierotko of Art Light Group, responsible for the visuals.
Art Light Group is involved in directing light and realizing theatrical shows, concerts and special events, and has worked with such artists as Julia Pietrucha, LemON, Igor Herbut, Natalia Przybysz, Natalia Kukulska and Sanah.
If you are curious where Tomek gets his inspiration from? What criteria are important to him when choosing equipment? What makes the "Uczta u Sanah" tour a show like never before in our country? What is the collaboration with Zuzanna Jurczak (Sanah) like? and you want to know the funny situations that took place during the tour, be sure to read the article below.
But let's start from the beginning and introduce Zuzanna Jurczak to those who have not yet had the opportunity to meet her. Sanah This is one of the most interesting vocalists from the so-called quality pop trend on the Polish scene. She can boast a unique style of songwriting - in terms of lyrics she gracefully and humorously combines youthful slang with poetry, musically she spills catchy, upbeat melodies like from her sleeve. She is the author of one of the biggest hits in Polish pop music in recent years - "Champagne" - and countless hits, including: "Melody," "No sory," "But jazz!", "ten Stan" or "cologne and schlock."
The tour in which we had the opportunity to participate included 11 exceptional concerts in terms of music and visuals, during which the Artist was accompanied by a 10-member string orchestra POLISH SOLOISTS. The last concert of the tour took place on July 8 at Warsaw's Torwar Stadium, and among the artist's guests, were: Vito Bambino, Artur Rojek, Igor Herbut, Natalia Grosiak, Daria Zawiałow....
What were your beginnings in the lighting industry?
Twenty-odd years ago I enlisted in Leszek Mądzik's theater, the Plastic Stage of the Catholic University of Lublin, where there were generally no actors. There were only scenery bearers. Something based on light, on conceptual shining. Very strange, very strange to me at the time, because, you would go between 2 and 3 percent, for example, in two or three minutes of light between 2 and 3 percent. So that's how I started my career, as far as light is concerned, although I was interested in light before, because I had already done amateur shows in a theater in Gizycko, there we were already combining with light and doing all sorts of strange things with light, and then somehow it went. I left the theater and started working with Budka Suflera, with the Ligtech company, and then I started working with my brothers, and then I founded the Art. Light Group company, thinking about transferring this whole theater concept to concert life. Before that, most of the concerts were freestyling lighting, and I wanted to transfer this concept of directing light to concerts, and I think it worked. Of course, I'm not the first to do it, but I think I'm one of the first to whom it started, succeeding better. What's more. And so I've been running the Art Light Group company for almost twenty years now. We had a great number of artists in my time with the company, about sixteen artists, four different theaters. In general, Art Light Group is not me, it's just a group of people who have one common goal, to create cool things, to do cool things, and we came together under this banner. So it's not a one-man company, where I direct everything, but everyone also has the same right to vote. And that's how we operate to this day. That's more or less how it works.
Do you see yourself as an artist?
Yes, I think I do. I am a painter of light. Everyone is an artist, anyone who does anything related to art is an artist in a certain way. There is no definition of an artist as such, and we light directors paint with light, so we are sort of artists in our own way. That's how you have to treat it, not as a craft, like acousticians who are sound engineers, that is, let's not hide it... a sound engineer versus a light director, there is a significant difference. I'm teasing, of course, I respect all acousticians, and I salute from this place, all my sound engineer and sound director friends. Everyone knows that I like to make fun of it.
What is the source of your first inspiration when creating lighting?
You know what music, the music I get. I have such a way that if I hear music, I immediately see images, spaces, accents and that strikes my eye and only on the basis of that, later I build myself some concept of light, show, what I want to do in a given concert, what I want to use, but the first thing I start with is the music, if the music doesn't appeal to me then I don't sit down to this project, because it doesn't make sense. That is, first the music, then the plan in my head, once I have the images in my head that I want to do, I wonder what to paint them with? A good example is a painting, if you have in your head what you want to paint, then you look for a technique for it, whether it's a sketch or pastels, and depending on what I want to paint it with, these are the devices I use. Whether they are, for example, incandescent devices, discharges, or leds. Depending on what I want to do at the time. But always at the beginning there is an image in my head, created with the help of music.
Between concerts on the tour, do you make any changes?
Yes, I make corrections all the time, until the last concert. Even today still, and it's the 12th concert of the Sanah tour, and I was still making more adjustments today, because I would still change something, still add something. Some things that I liked at the beginning have now become tiresome and I don't think they are good, so until the end, until the last concert of the tour there are changes.
Tell us a little about the equipment, what criteria are important to you in terms of choosing equipment?
It has to work. The first and most important is that it must work! It doesn't have to be an expensive device, it's important that it performs the function he wants it to perform. If it wants to have a washa then it's great if it's a branded, good wash, but for me the most important thing is that it has to shine properly, saturate the scene and space with color. When it comes to spots, I like bright stuff, because it's easier to stitch it later than to thicken it, so if I have a power reserve then I know what to go off of, but if that power is lacking and you have to look for gaps in the ambien somewhere, it's difficult. That's why I like powerful devices, that's why I like ROBE Pointe. I love this device because it's such a multifunctional device that really does a good job. Here I also have Sharpy Pluses and it is a piece of good device. Big and heavy, but bright and therefore good.
What do you think of the Claypaky Tambora Batten led strip?
I love them! I love Tambora so much that I have fallen in love with them right now, and I'm taking Tambora to Zuzi's upcoming tour. On summer sounds, there will be some of them, because I like this kind of stuff. Anyway, I have my Xeos brand pixelbars myself, but well, let's not hide them, they are already outdated and definitely inferior. The Tambora Batten performs exactly these functions, pixelability, single narrow meshes, also it is a very cool space building device. It draws space in a cool way and it's good.
What is your collaboration with Zuzanna Jurczak - Sanah? do you work alone in silence and present the result at the end, or do you discuss each step with the artist in question?
In one of the first philosophy classes, you learn the History of Philosophy, so as not to knock down open doors I apply the same practice in my relations with artists. Why should I invent something if the artist already has an idea for himself, so you just have to listen to him and sort of refine what he wants. Of course, if he doesn't have a complete idea of what he wants his concert to look like then I create everything from scratch, but in general it's that I listen to artists, I listen to what they want. Once Zuzia (Sanah) came to me and said she wanted rain. I replied: You're welcome! We will have rain. So that's how it works.
What makes the tour , "Uczta Sanah" a show like never before in our country?
Everything. Zuzia herself is an artist that has not yet been seen in our country. She is humble, genuine, sincere and kills with this sincerity from the stage. In addition, the technique that is here, we were the first to use rain in Poland. There was no such thing before, the rainmakers who are and who are now playing in Poland on tour, was brought in especially for us, for our tour. The reason we have a lot of confetti is because it's a feast, some people say there's too much of everything, but how can it be too much when it's a feast. The tour itself is called "Feast at Sanah's" so it has to be a lot, thick and to the max. Lasers we don't use first because it's been disenchanted before, many of my notable colleagues use lasers, but it's also good to show that there is such things, that there is water, that we use heavy smoke, that there is snow and as if there is everything that can be. Well we don't use fire, yet! but when it comes to all such special effects there is a lot of it. There's kinesis, a moving grille, a multi-level stage. For example, the fact that the piano is 6 meters above the ground. This already does a big job, I have not yet known such concerts where the stage is built so high. Come on, our Goose from the previous tour was also monstrous and also did a job, so in this respect we are blazing a trail for others, that the stage does not always have to be flat, have a simple straight catwalk, at the front of the stage can hang a bucket of water, there can be soap bubbles with smoke, there can be a lot of strange things, you just have to want, and simply as the motto of our company says, the limit is imagination, so we are limited only by what we think of.
Since you have set the bar so high, what else will you surprise us with during your next concerts?
Modesty, the next tour will be very modest, very even and that's it. Modesty.
What was your career breakthrough moment?
The breakthrough moment in my career was and is working with Igor Herbut and the band LemON and doing a tour, for the next album. There Igor allowed me full freedom of what to do, he trusted me to the end. It was the first time that I came up with the idea that even though I had color-mixing smart devices, the tour would just be black and white and we would use only white light, in all color temperatures from 3600 Kelvin to 6000. We used only white light, the whole tour was based on white light. There were also my first patents with a falling curtain, shadows, a driving screen in front and visuals in front of the artists. A lot of such things Igor allowed me to do. On that tour I proved to myself that I could do it, and since then I've stopped just chasing the rabbit, because that's the hardest thing in our industry and both in terms of acousticians, skylighters, light directors, sound directors, to prove to yourself that you can do it, because after that you don't have to prove anything anymore. After that you can just do cool things.
Maybe at the end you could be persuaded to let out a little secret and tell us some interesting, perhaps funny events that took place during the tour?
Every now and then there are funny events during this tour. At the first concert, we had the machines misaligned and the camera operator who was on the right side was first covered all over with fake snow, then he was immediately pelted with confetti and when he was almost out of it, he was pelted with soap bubbles and again pelted with confetti and again with bubbles and again with confetti and finally still rain, so hard work.
What is the Stage of Tomorrow for you?
Stage of Tomorrow such a cool project where... well when I started shining there was no such thing as a school of shining. It was like a person was learning it from others, looking up to colleagues, listening to advice, based on his own some experience, and this is the kind of thing that kind of raises the bar in our country when it comes to enlightenment and shows how to do it. I love to go to seminars organized by the Stage of Tomorrow and meet people who are doing cosmic things, because I get a lot out of it, as if I don't have to break open doors, some things people have already invented and so it's just enough to listen about it and then do it that way and that's it, also I respect the concept.
What are your goals for the next few years?
My goals for the next few years? I'm not looking that far ahead. To act, keep acting, do cool things with cool people and come up with cool projects.
The interview was conducted on 08.06.2022 at COS Torwar in Warsaw.
Soon the interview will also appear in audio form.
