Internationally renowned for his large-scale public interventions, Cai Guo-Qiang made his long-awaited Portuguese debut with One Page, presented on June 27th, 2026 as part of the BABELL. Blending his signature artistic language with a spectacular drone choreography, the one-night event turned the sky above the Douro River into a fleeting composition of light, smoke, and fire.
A performance inspired by Porto’s history and literature
Created exclusively for BABELL, One Page filled the skies above Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia, where crowds gathered along Ribeira and Cais de Gaia. Using 600 drones, coloured smoke, and gunpowder, the ten-minute spectacle treated the sky as a blank sheet, sketching images inspired by Porto’s literary legacy, architecture, and cultural identity. The city itself became part of the composition, with the river, skyline, and historic waterfront framing the performance.
The distinctive language of Cai Guo-Qiang’s art
For decades, Cai has explored the delicate balance between destruction and creation through gunpowder drawings, fireworks, and monumental public works. Internationally recognised for designing the pyrotechnic displays for the 2008 Summer Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, he continues to blur the boundaries between performance, installation, and environmental art.
With One Page, drones entered his visual vocabulary, joining pyrotechnics in a work that existed only for a few luminous minutes before dissolving into the night.
A landmark moment for the BABELL Festival
Commissioned by Fundação Livraria Lello, One Page became one of the festival’s defining moments. The project was co-produced with the Porto City Council in collaboration with Macedos Pirotecnia and Groupe F.
Among Europe’s largest drone performances, One Page fused contemporary art, technology, and storytelling into a luminous tribute to Porto, once again demonstrating Cai Guo-Qiang’s remarkable ability to turn public space into a shared work of imagination.
