In 2017 I spend time on the island of Mauritius and I had chosen to be there in December because I wanted to experience the Porlwi festival. The name of the capital is Port Louis and during the festival the city is completely transformed. The first time the festival was held was in 2015. In 2017 the theme was nature – Porlwi by nature. The intention of this festival of contemporary art and culture has been to advocate culture and education. For a whole week-end the many of the streets in Port Louis were completely transformed. Historic buildings were decorated. Educational films were shown, exhibitions, street artists, dancers and muscians were out in the street. This was a great way for artists to become seen.
Port Louis has a lot of old houses. This is one of them. It's located in one of the main streets, called Bourbon street. During the festival it turned into a pedestrian street. Many of the old houses was decorated and illuminated. During the evening they looked so different. Almost unrecognizable.
Down by the harbour at Ilot Grenier there were exhibitions of art. But this wall belongs to what was once a hospital. It's quite a long and tall wall. At night, with the lights on, it did look a bit ghostly.
This is the Citadel. Once it functioned as a fortress. It still has some of the old canons. The theme here was solar power. Many of the “rooms” inside were open so that we could walk the corridors with massive stone walls on each side. Different instalations or films were shown in each "room". At night hundreds of solar-jars illuminated the inner space of the Citadel.
Illuminated street art in Bourbon St. It was done during the first festival and shows the city of Port Louis. Looks very different at night.
The desire for this theme was to reconnect with nature. We were educated on invironmental issues like climatic changes and pollution. Port Louis turned into a greener city during the festival. Locals and tourists could enjoy light shows, see street artist at work, enjoy music performances, street food or atent an exhibition or two. Art became something everyone could enjoy for free. There were no entrance fees.
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