Fabrique des Lumières

A show you stand inside

Fabrique des Lumières is a digital art centre in the old gasholder hall of the Westergasfabriek. Images are projected across the walls, the pillars and the floor, and you walk through them. The sound comes from all sides.

This is not a gallery where you stand in front of a frame. A famous painting is stretched, slowed down and broken into colour until it covers the whole space, and you end up inside it. It suits people who tire quickly of museum rooms. It also works for children, and for anyone who wants to sit down for a while.

The programme changes, so check which show is running before you buy a ticket. The shows are built around well-known painters and big themes, and the format is the same each time.

The building came first

The Westergasfabriek was Amsterdam's gasworks. It stood at the western edge of the old city and made the gas that lit the streets and homes. The gasholder was where the gas was stored, which is why the hall is so large and so tall.

The gasworks closed in the 1960s, and the site stood empty for a long time. Later it became a cultural park, with the old industrial buildings reused as studios, cafés and event spaces. The gasholder is one of the biggest of them. Fabrique des Lumières is run by Culturespaces, the company behind similar light shows in Paris.

It makes sense that the show is here. A building made to hold something huge and invisible now holds a huge, glowing image.

What to look for when you are inside

Start by looking up. The projections climb the walls and reach the ceiling. If you only look straight ahead, you miss half of it.

Then look at the floor. Colours run across it, and some visitors stand still while the image moves under their feet. Walk slowly. The scene changes as you cross the room, and a spot that looks plain from the door can be the best place to see a close-up of a brushstroke.

Notice the structure behind the light, too. The raw industrial walls are part of the effect, and you can still sense the old gasworks when the images dim between scenes.

Find a place to sit. Most people stay on their feet near the entrance and only settle once they have seen the room from the middle. The show repeats, so you can watch from one spot, then walk and watch again from another.

Make an outing of it

Westergasfabriek's other buildings hold cafés, and Westerpark is right outside, so you can walk off the dark with a stroll. If you want to go on into the Jordaan, the Karthuizerhof, a 17th-century almshouse courtyard, is about a thirteen-minute walk away. Café Papeneiland, a brown café from 1642, is a good place to sit down afterwards, and the Brouwersgracht is a fine place to end as the light fades.