Tribute in Light
New York, USA
Created as an artistic gesture of collective memory, Tribute in Light is a symbolic, temporary light installation that illuminates the Manhattan skyline every year on the night of 11 September. Two vertical beams of light, up to 6,000 metres high, rise above the city and evoke the iconic silhouette of the World Trade Centre Twin Towers.
The concept was born from the intuition of artists Paul Myoda and Julian LaVerdiere and was developed with the support of a multidisciplinary team coordinated by the Municipal Art Society and Creative Time. Architects Gustavo Bonevardi, John Bennett and Richard Nash Gould, lighting designer Paul Marantz (Fisher Marantz Stone) and production manager Michael Ahern all participated in the project, with a common goal: to create an immaterial work that was visible, powerful and respectful.
'We had to find a way to perfectly align something invisible and intangible.'
Paul Marantz
To turn the idea into reality, a lighting system capable of producing extremely intense and direct beams of light was needed. Spacecannon provided a key part of the technology used for the installation: high-power xenon projectors capable of generating visible light even at great distances, penetrating the urban atmosphere.
The project required unprecedented engineering work: 88 7,000-watt xenon lights – arranged in two groups of approximately 15 metres per side (50 feet) with 44 projectors each – replicate the footprint of the towers. Their positioning and orientation follow those of the original buildings and were calibrated remotely, thanks to observers stationed at strategic points throughout the New York metropolitan area.
The final effect is mesmerising: two columns of light emerging from the sunset and becoming increasingly intense as darkness falls, making even the invisible visible.
The first lighting took place on 11 March 2002, exactly six months after the attacks, on a site adjacent to Ground Zero, which was still undergoing demolition.
"I was afraid it wouldn't have the desired effect," said Marantz, "but I almost cried because it was so powerful and hypnotic".
Today, Tribute in Light is reactivated every year as a symbol of resilience and collective memory. Its visual and spiritual power has transformed a temporary work into a permanent icon of the New York skyline and identity.
