2026 Edition – Mons en Lumières

Édition 2026

Entering the light, a need to illuminate the world: the theme for Mons en Lumières 2026

Every year, Mons en Lumières offers an extraordinary experience combining art, technology and emotion. In January 2026, Wallonia’s largest light festival returns with a theme that is as poetic as it is powerful: ‘Entering the light. A need to illuminate the world.’

This choice resonates like an invitation. To cross a threshold. To leave the darkness behind in order to better perceive what surrounds us. To symbolically rekindle the flame that illuminates our imagination.

A universal and sensory theme

From the first sparks of fire to the era of LEDs and fibre optics, light has accompanied human history. It heals, guides and inspires. It is at once a scientific tool, an energy resource, an artistic medium and a metaphor for knowledge and consciousness.

The 2026 theme invites artists to explore this plurality: physical light, symbolic light, inner light.

How can it be represented, fragmented, made to vibrate in urban space? How can we express our need, perhaps more than ever, to see clearly – in our cities as in our lives?

Every year, Mons en Lumières transforms the city into a canvas where art, technology and emotion come together. For its 2026 edition, the festival is working closely with the University of Mons (UMONS) and MUMONS on the Électrique exhibition to explore a theme that is poetic, sensory and deeply contemporary: “Entering the light. A need to illuminate the world.”

Born out of a dialogue between art and science, this theme questions our relationship with light in all its forms. It invites us to cross a threshold, to leave the darkness behind in order to better perceive what surrounds us, to symbolically rekindle the flame that illuminates our imaginations.
Through this exploration, light becomes much more than a simple visual phenomenon: it is energy, heat, movement, but also knowledge, consciousness and a link between beings.

The Electric exhibition, designed by MUMONS, explores the fascinating powers of electricity and its role in the birth of the modern world. It highlights how energy flows, transforms and fuels our societies, our creations and our dreams.
Echoing this approach, Mons en Lumières 2026 invites artists to extend this reflection into the urban space, through installations where light becomes alive, vibrant and tangible.