Luminiale 2012, Frankfurt

Frankfurt recently celebrated Luminale 2012; light projects set around the city that complemented the Light + Building trade show. ARTS THREAD takes a look at some of the highlights. Be sure to view the below videos for full effect!

Entitled Schöner Schein, translating as Beautiful Appearance, the entrance to the city’s Palmengarten played host to German lighting artists Luminauten’s nightly show of a sea of brightly-coloured flowers, with the intriguing byline – ‘Plants often attract with their beauty and the fragrance of their flowers. But one or two of them know how to use their charms and then it is too late …’

Other installations within the Palmengarten featured captivating titles such as Dancing Water, created by Lyon-based lighting designer Jacques Fournier, Snail Trail by Philipp Artus, Archilace by London-based Loop.pH and Damned Ikebana by Makoto Azuma.

At ARTS THREAD we fell for Shade of Play – Schattenspiel. Using a combination of robots and a seven-metre high, walk-in projection screen, viewers themselves become part of the magical kinetic shadow play.

On the river we came across Resonate, a light and sound installation set in the 40-metre-long interior of a container ship. ‘A network of bright lines is suspended in the steel hull of the vessel and creates atmospheric sounds. With the help of digital LED light and sound, visitors experience the space interactively as a three-dimensional space composition.’

Resonate is a project by the Interior Design Masters Degree Course of the University of Applied Sciences Mainz (Prof. Klaus Teltenkötter, Prof. Bernd Benninghoff), and was created in cooperation with the Masters Degree Course in Klangkunst-Komposition (Art of Sound Composition), Academy of Music at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz.

OVO by Odeaubois and ACT Lighting Design is a multi-sensory art installation created from an ovoid wooden sculpture magnified by light, acoustic and aquatic effects. OVO comment: Tthis dynamic form is a combination of 24 crossed spiral pairs based on the Golden Proportion that is present everywhere in the universe. The visitor is invited to walk on the water to reach the interior, as if to vanish into a metaphysical mist. The watery surface reflects the egg-like sculpture, the lighting, and also the silhouettes of the visitors who bring the surface to life by their passage.’

Time Drifts by Philipp Geist was the headline installation. Set up in the square of the Goethe-University, the future Kulturcampus. Concerned with time and space, text and images are projected onto the the ground of the square, the facades and onto the mist created by the display. Terms that can be seen as metaphors for transience can be briefly seen but disappear again immediately, refering to the location as a future cultural site and meeting place.

Another big hit at Luminiale 2012 was Bitte Platz nehmen – PLEASE HAVE A SEAT by gallery owner Bernd Spiecker. Ordinary park benches become art by means of acrylic glass cushions and radio-controlled LED lighting. The event also gave the opportunity to the city’s churches to bring in dramatic video and light displays, such as the one above entitled Vom Rätsel Wasser (From the mystery of water) at St. Katharinen.

Finally, the art gallery Bestregartssets the FBC building aglitter with 1000 flash lamps for SHINE SHINE SHINE.

For more information, visit Luminiale 2012.