Light art installations empower campaigns

Regional, Europe-wide or global campaigns by companies and organizations want to communicate social messages. To do so, they use a variety of communication media. With the support of the team from the FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS, the message is put into an artful context, primarily supported by light and colors. “Light is energy, light connects and light speaks all languages,” says the festival’s artistic director Birgit Zander, referring to the creativity with which light can fascinate people, create images and tell stories. At the 16th FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS in autumn 2020, there were three messages that remain memorable with their expressiveness in the heart.

#WirSindEinBerlin – and the bear must join in.

The new brand campaign emphasises team spirit and focuses on the sense of community among all Berlin citizens. “Berlin is the city of freedom, tolerance and diversity. The new brand identity of the state of Berlin is about emphasising what connects all of us in Berlin, and this in addition to the lived individual diversity,” says Michael Müller, Governing Mayor of Berlin.

In cooperation with the FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS, the new Berlin campaign moves into Berlin’s neighbourhoods and out into the world. #WirSindEinBerlin. Everywhere the slogan is represented together with the Berlin logo in luminous, emotional light shows. On bridges, city halls, train stations, museums, castles and local landmarks. Because the message should first and foremost arrive where it belongs. To the citizens of the city. And always present – the Berlin bear, and with good reason. After all, he is part of the city’s official logo and has just been reinvented by a brand relaunch. Formerly black with red claws, outstretched tongue and always a little aggressive, he now presents himself a little more cuddly, with a smart smile and somehow proud.

The bear’s journey through the neighbourhoods begins with an impressive 3D video mapping on the façade of the Rotes Rathaus (Red City Hall). At the FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS, the Berlin bear is allowed to shine in a firework of colours and in 3D. The light artists seem to paint all the colours and combinations of this world onto the bear’s body. They show the incredible diversity that the people of this city represent. The bear fully adorns the tower of the town hall,  under its feet is the unifying, new motto. On its following light tour through the city, it changes its light dress again and again in the artistic projections. At the light-artistic finale on the Oberbaumbrücke, he presents himself in outfits that Berlin citizens have created for him. Just in the way they see their city.

With the integration into the popular light festival, the makers successfully achieved overnight what campaigns like this need: to get into the hearts of the people for whom they are made. To anchor themselves there and stay. 

The Oberbaumbrücke as a landmark for lively communication.

O₂ sets a shining example for mobile freedom and digital participation

The bridge is one of Berlin’s landmarks and has connected the districts of Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg since the fall of the Wall. So, freedom and understanding are certainly reasons why O2 has chosen this building for its message. Under the title “The Evolution of Communication”, the video-sound projection highlights the rapid development of technology over the past decades and risks a glance into the digital future. It is about the use of the new 5G technology with more space for the ever-increasing volumes of communication, for networking people and also machines across the borders that still exist.

The main protagonists of the fast-paced, almost four-minute light art installation are the two bridge towers. The neighboring parts of the arched bridge take up their play of sparks, messages and digital number games. Bands of energy and streams of data, building up, flowing together, crackling and rushing. “Hello,” calls the image of a striking, clearly artificial male head from the one bridge tower to the other. There is no answer at first. One sees telegraph poles, satellite dishes, radio towers, the ringing of an old telephone interrupts a sudden silence. The unmistakable signs and shapes of digital development build up in a flash, turn and change, send signs. “Hello,” finally answers a woman’s head, which also reflects the current integration of an artificially created world.

Communication has a simple basic principle, it has a sender and a receiver. Communication connects people. And the message of making this possible over and over again across distances could probably not be presented more impressively with any other show.

„Faces of Europe“. Colorful. Multifaceted. One.

1.000 portraits of people from the 27 member states show humanity and common values.

The travelling exhibition “Faces of Europe” by photographer Carsten Sander has stopped in Berlin on its way through Europe. It is part of the official cultural program of the Foreign Ministry on the occasion of the German EU Council Presidency. The faces can be seen in an impressive video art production with live music on the east façade of the Federal Foreign Office as part of the FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS. The collaborative work of the producing team “Zander & Partner” with photographer Carsten Sander and, for the grand finale, with the Berlin band “Salzufer”, show the European Community as a multi-faceted, exceptionally intense synthesis of the arts.

The east façade of the extension building opposite the Friedrichswerder Church opens up in the middle to a courtyard. The art installation appears on part of the six-storey rising façade and on the high basement with three columns, leading into the inner courtyard. Horizontally stacked and symmetrically distributed, three of the large-format portraits always appear simultaneously in rapid change. They appear, dissolve, swim into each other, turn like the pages of a book. People from Europe. Young and old. All the emotional façettes that the continent has to offer are on display. In addition to the dynamic part of the installation, a static projection complements the overall work of art. The contours of the real building windows are supplemented by balconies in a light-artistic way. A view out into the world, a view of Europe. The transverse and longitudinal texts refer to the campaign itself. Words like “Freedom. Love. Rights. Solidarity.” in red letters are bundled on a fictitious poster, leaning against the wall with the balconies. 

The musical colors of saxophone, guitar and keyboard accompany live with cosmopolitan sounds. Visitors send the light art out into the world via social media channels. Each picture looks different, unique. But if you were to overlay all these photos on top of each other, it would show the face of Europe again. Colorful and multi-faceted.

Light art productions intensify the expressiveness of messages, reach many people on site and worldwide via social media channels.

More about this and many great stories about the FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS, the venues and partners you will find on the festival page and in the magazine.