When Wonder Festival Kortrijk invited 019 Art Collective to design the scenography for the 2025 edition of We Are The Next Generation (WATNG), they saw an opportunity to push beyond the usual exhibition formats. Known for their minimal yet monumental spatial interventions, 019 aimed to turn the Budafabriek into an immersive landscape rather than a classic display of plinths and tables.
To build that world, they turned to a familiar partner: Vivalyte.
The result was a scenography where light gave structure, orientation, and atmosphere, through a clever use of Vivalyte’s Open Structures LED Tubes (OS Tubes).
This collaboration follows an earlier joint project, Neighbour, created for Lichtfestival Ghent, where Vivalyte supported 019 with custom-built lighting elements that became integral to the artwork.
019 began the WATNG project with an unusual starting point: cardboard. Inspired Beelite’s lightweight honeycomb cardboard they envisioned a landscape as base layer.
“Cardboard is a neutral material,” explains Bert Villa of 019. “It has no pretensions. That makes everything you add to it special.”
The cardboard became a sculptural topography—low hills, platforms, recesses—that visitors could walk through. But something was missing: verticality. A sense of direction. A material that contrasted with the softness and neutrality of the cardboard while accentuating the artworks.
That’s where Vivalyte’s OS Tubes came in.
Unlike traditional exhibition lighting, the OS Tube is rigid, robust, and modular by design. Originally developed with the OpenStructures system in mind, each tube shares the same dimensional language as standard OS components—meaning it slots naturally into modular, temporary architecture.
For 019, this was the perfect match.
“A convenient thing is that the lamps are rigid,” says Bert. “They can hang on their own without much fixture.”
The tubes became branch-like light structures, rising from the cardboard terrain like abstracted trees. They added height, rhythm, and orientation—while also providing beautiful, soft light with an industrial aesthetic that 019 loves. Visitors noticed immediately. “Where did you find those?” became a common question during the exhibition.
The WATNG scenography was designed and installed in a tight timeframe. New materials, new tools, new shapes. Yet the process unfolded remarkably smoothly.
019 came to Vivalyte early, presenting their vision and constraints. With a modest budget and a desire to add something transformative to the space.
“We had already worked well with Vivalyte at Neighbour,” Bert recalls. “That meant there was immediate trust. Lei and the team really contributed ideas. We quickly arrived at the OS Tubes. A technical plan, prototypes, testing—it just clicked.”
Vivalyte’s engineering team supported 019 through each step—testing configurations, designing safe mounting solutions, and making sure the lighting behaved exactly as intended.
![Vivalyte Shortlisted For 3[d]arc Awards 2025 - neighbour LED rigid fixture](https://vivalyte.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Vivalyte-Neighbour.jpg)
The tubes proved to be:
“We were really pleasantly surprised by this versatile product,” says Bert. “We received very positive feedback on it.”
The partnership between 019 and Vivalyte did not end in Kortrijk. In fact, WATNG sparked the beginning of a new cycle of artistic reuse and experimentation.
After Wonder Festival, large volumes of Beelite cardboard that formed the sculptural landscape in Budafabriek were still in excellent condition. When 019 learned that the manufacturer did not have a dedicated waste stream for used panels, they saw an opportunity rather than a problem.
The answer became Erntedankfest 2025 at LLS Paleis in Antwerp, where 019 regularly collaborates with. The leftover cardboard was transformed into a new spatial landscape.
And once again, lighting with the OS Tubes played a central role.
This circular approach, where scenographic elements migrate from one exhibition to the next, perfectly aligns with 019’s ethos: resourceful, imaginative, and context-responsive. And it resonates strongly with Vivalyte’s focus on sustainable tools that support repeat use, modularity, and creative freedom.
The collaboration continues, with 019 planning future interventions in Bruges, Watou, and several public-space projects—many of which may again feature the OS Tubes as adaptable, expressive elements.
