The Anooki have taken on an extra dimension. Place Bellecour is the new playground for these huge characters as this monumental installation turns the venue into a child's bedroom. The statue of Louis XIV is nothing more than a tiny lead soldier on the Anooki-scale, just like the genuine fire engine that seems to be the size of a toy. Marbles are scattered across the square, illuminated by the rotating Ferris wheel – a Ferris wheel that has been transformed into a nightlight onto which the Inuit dreams are projected every 15 minutes. The images that appear are often just an excuse to conjure up major global causes in a humorous manner – and especially to have some fun by singing and dancing to Anooki's latest hit.
Designers Moetu Batlle and David Passegand settled in Lyon in 1998, co-founding the digital design studio Inook. In 2000, they created the Anooki, two adorable Inuits, as the visual identity for their Inook studio. For their first Festival of Lights in 2012, the two Eskimos Anook et Nooki showed off their acrobatic skills on the facade of Saint-Paul station to much acclaim. In the same year, to develop the Anooki project, David and Moetu teamed up with Marc Guidoni Aglagla production to launch a web series on France4. Having been awarded two France 3 Lumières trophies in 2012 and 2014 and among rumours of a full-length feature film, they are back at the festival after a dozen shows taking them from Kiev to Singapore.