One of the most prominent and representative icons of Europe is the Saint Climent de Taüll, located in the province of Lleida. In fact, the church was declared a World Heritage by UNESCO in 2000. An investment of over $400k by Obra Social La Caixa was recently made to restore the church with projected light to include its original wall paintings. The original frescoes are now housed and preserved in the National Museum of Catalan Art (MNAC), but that didnt stop Burzon Comenge, Charmex and Base2 to bring back the church to its former glory days.

Six Christie projectors were used to flood the apse and surrounding walls with projected light. The project is the first permanent mapping installation to be held in such an important Spanish heritage. As Lluis of Charmex puts it, “it is a totally innovative and pioneering project in Spain, something world-class and so spectacular that required the best professional projectors on the market, so do not hesitate to recommend to Christie, for the features, performance and robustness of their teams.”

Eloi Maduell, co- director of Playmodes explains that “a market analysis was made and tests were conducted with selected projectors. Finally, the image quality, color and price, Christie was chosen. They are projectors with a huge color and image quality that offer great strength.”

The entire area encompassed 100 square meters, using projector models DHD550, DHD675 and the G-Christie series projectors installed at the base of the apse. The unique installation required custom designed mounts, fabricated by MetalWork. The AV software used for synchronization and playback was Vioso along with warping software Genfen.

A 3D laser scanner captured the scene giving the designers a virtual model of the church. With the environment geometry in hand, the artists integrated virtual duplicates of original paintings currently at the MNAC, creating a virtual restoration of the original church.

The practical value is truly inspiring, given the impact it’s had on helping restore historical significance and tourism value to the church. Since the installation is permanent, guests can see the restored church anytime its open to the public. “We are proud to have participated in the development of a project of this type with a high level of quality and strength-Maduell stresses. It has been a major challenge because the characteristics of this mapping were much more demanding and complex than other projects we have done before. ”

[Source: DigitalMagazine]