Credit: © Luxair
On Wednesday 29 June 2022, Luxembourg flagship carrier Luxair unveiled its new livery as part of iths 60th anniversary celebrations, representing the Luxembourgish symbol "Roude Léiw" (red lion) which rises from its ashes like a phoenix, designed by Marco Weiten.
As the 60th anniversary of the first Luxair flight approached, operated on 31 March 1962 to Paris Le-Bourget, the airline launched an appeal to artists from Luxembourg and the Greater Region to imagine its next special livery.
For the third anniversary 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 was a great success and the company received more than sixty original artworks.
In April 2022, a pre-selection established by Luxair staff members, made it possible to select eleven designs, then in May, the winner, Marco Weiten, was elected by a professional jury of artists and art experts as well as by the management of Luxair.
The Boeing 737-800, registered LX-LGV, dressed in Marco Weiten's designs symbolising the rebirth and promising future of Luxair, will take off for the first time on Wednesday 29 June 2022 transporting its passengers to Tenerife.
Marco Weiten said: “Sixty 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, 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 and whose curiosity and interest were aroused by his visits to the natural history museum as well as at the zoo. Some canvases are like plane tickets to a mystical place where gazes, desire and a wild energy unique to the Animal Kingdom are exchanged. Often, the canvases make the colors sing, giving rhythm to the outpourings of red, blue and yellow. 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. It is in nature that this artist is inspired to sing a hymn to his acrylic colors, it clashes like everything that concerns youth and life. Color is life, in all its power and savagery, and this the artist masters with ease.
Marco Weiten is also a graphic designer and illustrator of children's books and two of his stories (Illustrations) “Klenge roude Léiw” and “Kouhandel mat der Wiederhex” have been made inscribed in the form of wonder castles in the Parc Merveilleux.
Gilles Feith, CEO of Luxair, said: “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 symbolising 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”.
