Sparkling Souls

In African culture, peoples have long communed with the spirits of the deceased through nature, in an atmosphere of recollection and veneration. During funerary ceremonies in the Western region of a country called Cameroon, a blazing bonfire is lit, its sparkling light paying a deep and solemn tribute to those who have left us. But this ancestral practice,
although rich in meaning, unfortunately remains harmful to the environment, with the quantities of CO2 released and the precious trees felled to fuel the flames. It is for this reason that, with a view to preserving this sacred tradition while keeping its message of hope and communion with the afterlife intact, this project aims to establish a new form of communication with departed souls, but this time through fireflies instead of flames, those fairy-like creatures whose delicate twinkling has
always filled hearts with wonder.

While the sun, moon and stars are usually mentioned when talking about natural light, fireflies are not. Yet they manage, despite their small size, to produce a magical glow with an almost perfect energy efficiency, emitting almost no heat. It was indeed these luminous insects that enchanted our sweet summer evenings with their twinkling dance, filling us with wonder as children. However, their presence is dangerously dwindling across the Cameroonian territory, falling victim to galloping deforestation, blinding light pollution and the incessant construction generated by human activity. Fortunately, they still
subsist in some preserved regions such as Western Cameroon, which is why the town of Mbouda, a little town there, was chosen as the site for this project. This project also aims to contribute to the re-establishment of a favorable ecosystem that will allow fireflies to reproduce peacefully, so that future generations can also marvel at the fairy-like spectacle they offer us.

The location chosen for this symbolic ceremony is sheltered from dwellings, at the heart of a verdant area dotted with trees and crossed by a river, in order to preserve a welcoming and natural setting conducive to the establishment of fireflies. Knowing that they communicate with each other through the light they emit to find each other and reproduce, the goal is to
attract them through the language that is their own, that is, through light. For this purpose, myriads of low-heat nano-LED bulbs imitating their light emission will be connected to each other by thin electrical wires, like the twinkling garlands of Christmas trees. They will be delicately hung from the branches of the trees on the site to the ground. They will blink at the same frequency as the lights produced by the fireflies, with the aim of attracting them. Their energy will come from flexible solar bands in the shape of a ring positioned on high branches, capturing the invigorating rays of the sun throughout the day to power the upcoming nocturnal ballet. The natural light of the sun will thus allow us to perpetuate that of the fireflies. These bulbs will be regularly lit in order to encourage the presence and multiplication of the desired fireflies. Then, on the days of the ceremony, in addition to those already present on the site, other bulbs forming an “infinity” symbol will be suspended between the trees, in order to resonate in harmony with the ancestral African beliefs that the dead are not really dead, but live eternally through us, in our hearts and minds. Spectators who have come to pay tribute to their deceased loved ones will be able to observe the scene, without making any noise. The twinkling of the fireflies, coupled with that of the imitating bulbs, will then be the living and shimmering representation of the souls of departed loved ones, hence the name “Sparkling Souls”.