LONDON – Earlier this year, Luxembourg carrier Luxair issued an appeal to artists from Luxembourg and the Greater Region to design a special livery to celebrate the airline’s 60th anniversary.
This week, the airline finally unveiled its #FlyingIsAnArt Anniversary edition.
Envisioning the future
For this third edition of #FlyingIsAnArt, Luxair invited artists to draw their vision of the future of the airline, while highlighting the values of inclusion, diversity, audacity and innovation.
The competition drew more than sixty submissions, which the airline characterised as “original and overflowing with creativity.”
April this year saw a pre-selection of 11 shortlisted designs for the new livery. Then in May, the winner, an artist named Marco Weiten was selected by a professional panel of artists and art experts, as well as Luxair management.
The Boeing 737-800, registered LX-LGV, was dressed in Marco Weiten’s designs symbolizing the rebirth and promising future of Luxair.
The aircraft flew in its new livery for the first time on Wednesday, 29 June transporting its passengers to Tenerife.
In the words of artist Marco Weiten
“60 years of Luxair, flight, history, power, energy and skill, serenity and the desire to give the best. Let’s celebrate 60 years together with this lively design.”
“Luxair’s colors symbolically run through the different decades and unite in a strong Luxembourg symbol, the red lion.”
“It represents a Luxembourg tradition, but here it rises from its ashes like a phoenix and all the colors converge in it, the dawn of a fantastic future.”
“All together we are a positive sign of respect, competence, teaching and practice. At 60 years, Luxair is just beginning to fly… the future is now.” – Marco Weiten.
Some words from Gilles Feith, CEO Luxair
“This year is placed under the sign of the 60th anniversary of the first Luxair flight and I am delighted to be able to celebrate it with such a work signed by Marco.”
“His realistic and colorful art convinced us and I am confident that it will be the same for all the people who will see this plane, in Luxembourg but also through all the other destinations to which it will fly.”
“On this livery, the strongest symbol of Luxembourg (Roude Léiw) turns into a phoenix, perfectly symbolizing Luxair’s hoped-for path for the future.”
“I think the goal of this contest, which is to share a positive message that will touch the hearts of as many people as possible, has been successfully achieved.”
About the artist
Marco Weiten, who spent part of his childhood in Paris, is a Luxembourg artist who knew how to restore his letters of nobility to contemporary animal painting.
His curiosity and interest were aroused by his visits to the natural history museum as well as at the zoo.
The warmth of the pigments evokes nature and its wild magic. Concerned about realism, the artist works the subject with powerful gestures, in a figurative altercation that favors the expressionist force of painting.
The Roude Léiw
The national symbol of Luxembourg is the rampant red lion, or Roude Léiw. It symbolically finds pride of place on the 60th anniversary Luxair livery.
