Bright prospects for the second Genius Loci Weimar videomapping festival

The second Genius Loci Weimar festival took place in Weimar, Germany last weekend from Aug. 9-11. The annual festival is a growing event that celebrates and gathers talent in the emerging art form of videomapping. After last year's success, Genius Loci Weimar has expanded to include in its program a competition, symposium, videomapping workshops, and an exhibition in cooperation with the Bauhaus University Weimar.

Visitors strolling about the festival got to experience the three winning projection-art performances of the competition on three different facades: Media Apparat's "Ana.Digital" at Wittumspalais; Video Mapping Hungary's "Liszt-hitecture" at City Castle courtyard; and RDV Collectif's "Legacy" at the Bauhaus University Weimar main building.

Festival winner at Wittumspalais: "Ana.Digital" at Media Apparat.

Festival winner at Weimar City Castle courtyard: "Liszt-hitecture" by Video Mapping Hungary

Festival winner at Bauhaus University Weimar main building: "Legacy" by RDV Collectif

Additionally, visitors were able to check out live video performances, light installations, and dance to electronic music throughout the weekend. There's no doubt that prospects are looking bright for this young festival. The Genius Loci Weimar group is already looking forward to continue sharing the art of videomapping when they return next year.

Check out some cool photos from this year's festival below.

"More than 12.000 visited the facade projection festival Genius Loci Weimar
The festival ended on Sunday with a great success and an overwhelming response

During the weekend more than 12.000 visitors gazed in wonder at the spectacular facade shows of the second Genius Loci Weimar festival. While in 2012 around 6.000 visited the shows, the number has more than doubled. Was last year only the Fürstenhaus was illuminated, this year the three facades Wittumspalais, City Castle courtyard and the Bauhaus University Weimar main building were transformed into huge urban screen..."

"On Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 p.m. to 12:30 interested visitors had the opportunity to experience the complex productions. The Wittumspalais facade was put into limelight with 'Ana.Digital' by Media Apparat from Austria. The projection showed a dancer merged into the projection, to become a dream of historical memory particles. In the city castle courtyard, 'Liszt hitecture' was projected by Video Mapping Hungary (Hungary). A journey of the musician Franz Liszt from Hungary and a Hungarian artist group to Weimar was visually re-narrated and combined with a remix of Franz Liszt's music. The main building of the Bauhaus University Weimar presented 'Legacy' by RDV Collectif (France): A triptych on the legacy of the Bauhaus heritage, a study and interpretation of the influences of the old over the new Bauhaus..."

"Beside the three shows the festival provided several other highlights. The Genius Loci Club in the Project and Design Workshop Gaswerk counted on Friday after the premiere show over 600 visitors, enjoying live video performances, honey-combshaped light installations and electronic music from DWIG + Deer (Weimar) and Mare Ateq (both Berlin). A VJ battle was fought out between Das Konglomerat (Weimar) and Lampenschirm (Vienna). Beyond that the filmmaker and choreographer Daniel Belton (Good Company) from New Zealand presented live on Saturday night a specially designed facade projection "Time Dance / rapid mix" for the Bauhaus University Weimar..."

"In addition, for the first time workshops were offered (from August 5 to 11) in which participants could learn more about videomapping, engineering and the implementation of their designs, and were able to experiment with this new art form. The symposium at the weekend (August 9 to 11) was a great opportunity for students and professionals to learn more about "media facades", to discuss videomapping art and its methods and to get an overview of the current research. 'Not many scientific references can be found within the field of videomapping and media facades, so that the Weimar symposium could strongly contribution to the current discussions.' underlined Anke von der Heide, project manager of Genius Loci Weimar and organizer of the symposium..."

"Prof. Markus Wintersberger, a lecturer at the Institute Creative / Media / Technologies at FH St. Pölten (Austria) and a member of Media Apparat held as well  a lecture, while a dancer enhanced the performative character of his presentation. 'It is not only about the technological aspect, facade projects should  also be artistic and'playful irritations, which are able to change the rules,' said Winterbergsberger.
 

'We are thrilled that the Genius Loci Weimar festival was such a great success and we are thankful to all our partners. Without them the festival would not have been possible', said Hendrik Wendler, managing direcor of Genius Loci Weimar."

"The Festival:

Genius Loci Weimar is an unique media art festival which looks beyond the mere geometry of objects to explore the possibilities of reflecting the spirt of the place through projection art. Unlike erratic claptrap, Genius Loci Weimar approach focuses on an intensive analysis of history, habitus and the architectonical composition of the place. The international festival of audiovisual projections Genius Loci Weimar was launched in 2012 and became an immediate success. 2013 will mark the expansion of Genius Loci Weimar in time and space: three historic facades will be animated, and invite you to an evening stroll along the projection locations..."

"...A new and unique festival format enriches so the “Weimarer Sommer” event series and offers a hotspot for a young artform and provides a pool for different creative disciplines. Genius Loci Weimar is sponsored by e.g. Thuringian Ministry of Economy, Labour and Technology, the Best Western Premier Grand Hotel Russischer Hof, the Weimarer Sommer the City of Weimar, Kulturstiftung des Freistaats Thüringen, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar and the Bauhaus University Weimar."

You can check out Genius Loci Weimar on Facebook, Twitter, and Vimeo.

Click the thumbnails for more festival photos.