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If you are looking for some projection mapping this weekend, head over to Weimar, Germany. The 3rd annual Genius Loci Weimar Festival kicks off this weekend. Come see some facade projections selected via an international competition!

PR text follows…

Now in its third year and true to the festival slogan: Make Walls Talk! the facade projection festival Genius Loci Weimar brings historical buildings in Weimar to life. Over the weekend of 15 to 17 August 2014 productions for the Anna Amalia Library, the German National Theatre Weimar and Herderplatz, one of the city’s most historic squares, will be premiered. On all three evenings the facade shows produced by international projection artists can be experienced between 9.30 pm and 12.15 am. The festival is open to the public and free of charge.

The works showing were chosen following an international competition. Artists were invited to submit a design that captures and re-interprets the Genius Loci – the spirit of the location – of their chosen building.
The winning design for the Anna Amalia Library comes from mammasONica, a group of artists from Catania, Italy. Themes highlighted in their work ‘Limen’ include Goethe’s secret love for Duchess Anna Amalia, fire as both a destructive force and anima (soul) and charred embers capturing both time and memory. Their work combines 2D-animations with stop-motion techniques.
In their design for the German National Theatre, ruestungsschmie.de – a team from Dresden, Germany – have chosen to focus on the sound of the building. Using hands, bows and drumsticks, columns, windows and doors are ‘played’ as musical instruments. Incorporating this sound in their work ‘Klang3’ they visually accentuate individual elements of the theatre by means of distortion and warping.
Xenorama from Bremen, Germany, have taken on the challenge of the Herderplatz location. On this square, the bust of Ohm Kruger, leader of the Boers in South Africa, and the statue of eighteenth-century theologian Johann Gottfried Herder have faced each other for over a century. In their projection ‘Moya Facade’, the artists respond by drawing on different aspects of the philosophical worlds of these two figures – worlds that could hardly be more different.

Another highlight of the festival programme is the Genius Loci Lab – a series of experimental facade shows at the ruins of the Künstlerhaus (a former arts complex). A young international avant-garde of the videomapping scene will be working together in the lead up to the festival to produce a projection sculpture to be incorporated into their facade shows.

Friday and Saturday evenings feature film walks hosted by the group of Hamburg artists known as A Wall is A Screen. From 10 pm to 11.30 pmvisitors are invited to join them on a walk leading to specially selected projection facades within the city centre. Equipped with mobile projectors, they will show the audience a short film at each stop. This film, taken from a variety of genres, reflects the building’s history or function and offers a further take on the ‘spirit of the location’. The route of the walk remains secret. The audience will be lead and should be prepared for surprises.

A highlight on Friday is the club night in Gaswerk Weimar. In addition to well-known DJs and artists from the electro scene, clubgoers can experience both inside and outside the club interactive installations by Lotus Lumina (Erfurt) and SYC (Berlin). A shuttle service will operate from Goetheplatz to the Gaswerk venue.

For further information on the festival see www.genius-loci-weimar.org

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