Durham has long been a city that breathes history. Its cobbled streets, winding lanes, and majestic cathedral perched above the River Wear create a setting that feels both timeless and alive. It is no surprise, then, that Durham often plays host to artistic projects that seek to weave past and present together in ways that stir the imagination. One such project is The Storytellers by Luxmuralis, an immersive light and sound installation that transforms Durham Cathedral into a living canvas of stories.
For those unfamiliar, Luxmuralis is a collaborative artistic team that works across the disciplines of fine art, sound, and projection. They are perhaps best known for creating experiences that combine stunning light displays with specially composed music and narrative, bringing spaces to life in unforgettable ways. Their installations are not mere spectacles; they are designed to provoke thought, emotion, and reflection, engaging audiences in a multi-sensory dialogue with art and architecture.
Durham Cathedral, one of the great Norman buildings of Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, provides the perfect stage for such a performance. It is a building that has been telling stories for nearly a thousand years—through its stones, carvings, stained glass, and presence. When Luxmuralis brought The Storytellers here, they were not just adding art to a sacred space; they were entering into a conversation with centuries of history, faith, literature, and human experience.
A Cathedral Transformed
Walking into Durham Cathedral during The Storytellers is to step into an altered reality. The familiar vastness of the nave, with its towering pillars and soaring vaults, becomes a backdrop for shifting light, cascading colour, and moving imagery. It is as if the building itself comes alive, its walls no longer static but fluid, shimmering with tales old and new.
Luxmuralis’ use of projection is masterful. They do not simply illuminate surfaces; they animate them. The intricate Romanesque architecture, with its alternating patterns of stone, becomes part of the artwork. Imagery washes across the stonework as if it were parchment, revealing fragments of stories, letters, and symbols. In moments, one sees the words of ancient texts, then illustrations of manuscripts, then bursts of abstract colour that pulse in rhythm with the accompanying soundscape.
The effect is both overwhelming and intimate. Overwhelming in the sense that you are enveloped in light and sound, immersed in an experience larger than yourself. Intimate because, at the same time, you become acutely aware of your own smallness within this great edifice, and of the human stories being told—stories that resonate on a personal level.
The Power of Stories
The central theme of the installation is storytelling. Human beings are, at their core, storytellers. Long before the written word, stories were passed down orally, shaping identities, cultures, and communities. Luxmuralis draws on this idea, filling the cathedral with a kaleidoscope of narratives that stretch across time and geography.
The projections evoke myths, legends, and scripture. They remind us of the importance of literature, of the ways books and manuscripts have carried ideas across generations. They pay homage to the power of words to inspire, heal, and transform. At times, it feels as though one is standing inside a library of the imagination, where pages are constantly being turned and new worlds opened before your eyes.
What makes The Storytellers particularly poignant in Durham is the city’s own deep connection to stories. The cathedral houses the remains of St. Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede, both figures deeply associated with the written word and with the preservation of knowledge. Bede’s histories, in particular, are some of the earliest accounts of English life and thought. The installation seems to honour this heritage, bridging the ancient tradition of chronicling and storytelling with the contemporary medium of light art.
Sound and Atmosphere
Sound plays an equal role in shaping the experience. Luxmuralis’ installations are accompanied by bespoke musical compositions that mirror and enhance the visual journey. The music inside Durham Cathedral is at once haunting and uplifting. It echoes through the stone arches, resonating in the vastness of the space.
The score weaves together moments of quiet reflection with crescendos of power and energy. At times, it feels almost choral, evoking the sacred traditions of cathedral music. At others, it takes on a more modern, experimental quality, blending electronic tones with organic sounds. The result is a soundscape that draws you deeper into the unfolding story, guiding your emotions as the projections move from one theme to another.
Visitors often describe the experience as meditative, even spiritual. It is not simply entertainment; it is something more profound, a kind of communion with art and history that invites stillness and wonder.
Personal Reflections
Standing in the midst of The Storytellers, I found myself reflecting on the stories that shape my own life. Some were grand narratives—history, culture, tradition. Others were personal—memories of family, childhood, and places that left a mark on me. The installation seemed to speak to both: the collective human journey and the individual’s place within it.
One particularly powerful moment came when projections of handwritten text flowed across the nave, line after line spilling across the stone. It reminded me of the countless writers, scribes, and ordinary people who have left their mark through words. Every diary entry, every poem, every letter, becomes part of the great fabric of storytelling. To see this visually represented in such a grand setting was deeply moving.
Another striking aspect was the way the installation played with light and shadow. There were moments when the cathedral was bathed in dazzling brightness, every stone glowing. Then, suddenly, darkness would fall, broken only by subtle beams or single points of light. This rhythm of illumination and obscurity carried symbolic weight—themes of revelation and mystery, knowledge and ignorance, memory and forgetting.
A Shared Experience
What also stood out was the communal aspect of the event. People gathered together—families, friends, visitors from afar—all sharing the same moment of awe. In our age of individual screens and personal digital feeds, there is something profoundly unifying about standing side by side with strangers in a great space, all looking up, all absorbing the same spectacle.
It echoed the ancient role of cathedrals as places of gathering, where stories were not just read but enacted, sung, and shared. In many ways, Luxmuralis has revived this tradition, using the tools of modern technology to rekindle a sense of collective wonder.
Why It Matters
Art installations like The Storytellers are more than just fleeting events; they are reminders of the enduring power of creativity. They show us that even in an age saturated with information and entertainment, there is still room for experiences that stop us in our tracks and make us see the world differently.
In Durham, the choice of venue was especially significant. To bring light, sound, and story into a space that has been central to English Christianity, scholarship, and culture for centuries is to connect the dots between past and present. It is to say: the stories of our ancestors are not forgotten; they live on, transformed, and reimagined for today.
Moreover, The Storytellers speaks to a broader truth: that we are all part of an ongoing narrative. Our lives are chapters in a book far larger than ourselves, and yet every chapter matters. Every voice, every perspective, contributes to the richness of the human story.
Lasting Impressions
As the final lights faded and the music drew to a close, there was a palpable stillness in the cathedral. People lingered, reluctant to leave, as though they wanted to hold onto the experience just a little longer. The projections were gone, the walls bare again, but the memory remained vivid.
Leaving the cathedral and stepping back into the night air of Durham, the world felt slightly altered. The streets seemed more alive, the city more storied. Perhaps that is the greatest gift of The Storytellers: it reminds us to see the stories all around us—in places, in people, in the flow of time itself.
Durham, with its unique blend of history, architecture, and community, provided the perfect canvas for this work. And Luxmuralis, with their talent for marrying light and sound with profound themes, created something that will live on in the minds of those who witnessed it.
Conclusion
The Storytellers by Luxmuralis at Durham was more than an art installation; it was an encounter with the essence of what makes us human. It celebrated our need to tell stories, to preserve memory, to pass on knowledge, and to connect with one another across time and space.
In an era often dominated by noise and distraction, it offered a space of beauty, reflection, and shared wonder. Durham Cathedral has seen many things in its long history, but even in that storied timeline, this event carved out a place of its own. It reminded all who attended that stories are not just in books or archives; they are alive, written in light and sound, in stone and spirit, in each and every one of us.
