SCENOGRAPHY OF SPACE, Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, June 2023

An inspiration for this installation SCENOGRAPHY OF SPACE, which brings together visual art & film, was Hans Richter’s film “Rhythmus 21”. Hans Richter was an important 20th century German artist and filmmaker known for his avant-garde works. One of his notable films, “Rhythm 21” from 1921 is considered one of the earliest abstract films ever made and has been called a “key film of modernism.” In this film, Richter explored the representation of abstract forms, movements, and rhythms. The film consists of trick moving geometric shapes and patterns. Black and white squares appear in fades up and down on the screen. They sometimes appear to move from one side of the frame to the other, sometimes from foreground to background.

Rhythm was shot in black and white and lasts about 3 minutes – as does the installation Scenography of Space. “Rhythm” had a profound influence on many subsequent artists and filmmakers and, as stated earlier, also served as inspiration for Luftwerk. Luftwerk’s artistic practice, with its emphasis on light, color, and choreographed projections, is conceptually related to Richter’s exploration of abstract forms and rhythms. Luftwerk’s work extends Richter’s legacy and bridges the gap between film and visual art. By incorporating light projections and techniques (in Luftwerk’s case: motors / fabric panels), they push the boundaries of the medium and develop a unique visual language, expanding the possibilities of film and visual art through their innovative and boundary-breaking approach.

And while we’re on the subject of perception, we’re also in NOW, our theme of the Hamburg Short Film Festival. An expanded concept of media art also includes the use of light and movement as artistic material. As early as the 1950s, artists of the ZERO group such as Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker were concerned with light as a creative medium. Their concern was to trace painting back to its conditions, namely in particular to light as the underlying element. In doing so, however, they left the technique of painting with paint and canvas and created spatial works that cast shadows or evoked reflections and incorporated movement into their concept. The result was works whose impression changes depending on the viewer’s point of view. Heinz Mack does not consider color or other formal components, but their spatial organization and movement as the actual form of artistic work.

Scenography of Space by Luftwerk also works as a space-related artwork with the integration of a variable viewer perspective. As the:visitor:walks through the space, there is no fixed viewer standpoint that dictates an optimal perspective of perception. Movement and orientation in the space is an intentional element of the visitor experience.

— Melike Bilir —

All Afrika Village, Harare, Zimbabwe

ZUVA is a site-specific sculptural space that merges traditions of healing and architecture with contemporary color and light work. Inspired by traditional African architecture and realized in collaboration with local cultural experts, this permanent structure is built using local materials, labor, and traditional Zimbabwean building techniques. The installation of a 5KW off-grid solar system in the project provides power to the space, the Dzimbanhete Arts and Culture center, and its surrounding community. Embracing the multi-faceted concept of “zuva”meaning both sun and the movement of the sun across the sky is reflected in the interior gradient dome ceiling illuminated via color shifting lights.

Geometry of Light, German Pavilion, Barcelona, Feb 10-17, 2019

Geometry of Light created an interpretive layer to the gridded plan, vertical planes, and materiality of the architecture of the 1929 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich-designed German Pavilion. By emphasizing the open floor plan and material selections, Geometry of Light heightened the illusion of physical and material boundaries. A grid of light animated the architecture to accentuate the gridded plan and flowing space while permeating through the interior and exterior. The animated lines of light were choreographed to trace, highlight, and alter the composition of the pavilion.
Geometry of Light was an art intervention by Luftwerk in collaboration with Iker Gil at the German Pavilion in Barcelona. Organized by The Fundació Mies van der Rohe and MAS Context, presented as part of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe’s ongoing program of artistic interventions, and corresponding with the LLUM BCN Festival and the Santa Eulàlia Festival. A site specific sound piece by Oriol Tarragó was integral to this experience. The first of two interventions celebrating Mies van der Rohe, Geometry of Light was also presented at the iconic Edith Farnsworth House, in Plano, Illinois, October 11-13, 2019, coinciding with the third edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

White Wanderer, EXPO Chicago 2017, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL

Developed from relationships with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and a glaciologist at the University of Chicago, this project launched in October 2017 with two iterations: Two North Riverside Plaza and at Art EXPO Chicago. The immersive installation at Two North Riverside Plaza was comprised of a visual representation at 1:5000 scale of the 120-mile long crack on the side of the building paired with a custom sound recording of the iceberg. Sound recordings of Larsen-C covered the plaza with a prominent frequency; at times the city and iceberg sounds correlate to one another and at other times they are in conflict. The haunting, eerie iceberg sound is animalistic with a depth that connects on a visceral level, stirring curiosity to create awareness and action. The White Wanderer exhibition at EXPO Chicago presented artistic interpretations of the Larsen-C ice shelf, including: a light sculpture mimicking ice flow, prints tracing satellite images of Arctic ice flows, and interpretations of radar readings from ice distress.

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Mauerschau is Hauke Berheide’s operatic interpretation of Penthesilea—Heinrich von Kleist’s 1808 tragedy about the mythological Amazon queen. The opera imagines a tumultuous, raging war in an emotional drama highlighting the complicated, abstract reality embedded in these conflicts.

Luftwerk’s design for the stage and video content for this opera reflected the confusion inherent in war. They set the tone of the opera with Roger Fenton’s iconic 1855 image of war—one in which a staged propaganda photo frames a distorted reality. Stemming from this, patterns derived from Morse code and Dazzle camouflage further highlight the abstract realm of war. Using forced perspective the set gives the illusion of a greater depth, altering the viewer’s perception and abstracting reality.

Using a mix of historic and contemporary visual materials, the set connected the historic story of war into the present in an atmospheric design. Together, the design elements set the mood of the opera while looking at how abstraction can exist in the reality of photography and the similarities of wars throughout time. Abstract details of message, approach, and history reside within and are reflected through this design for Mauerschau.

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Süddeutsche Zeitung

transLIT was developed for the opening celebration of Chicago’s newest public park with an elevated pathway, the 606. The event was located Humboldt Boulevard viaduct and temporarily closed off for the public to experience and celebrate the 606. Imagery of flora and fauna filled this site-specific video installation, which was projected onto the surfaces of the newly repurposed urban infrastructure. Highlighting the birth and growth of this new public space for Chicago, this project gave light—literally and symbolically—to the future of this important public park.

This site-specific installation was developed as a pair of extended and compressed mirrored portals. INTO and OUT of fragmented and reflected the interior of THE FRANKLIN gallery space and the surrounding exterior environment. This experimental installation used the reflective surfaces, depth of field, and site conditions to manipulate the perspective and experience of the space. Luftwerk developed this using all the material from each panel with no waste—some forms were designed to create an open space to go into, while others were created out of the negative space from the design. The mirrored, front-facing side of the installation was contrasted with the back black and created an unexpected void to highlight the negative and positive space within the work.

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Luftwerk created this animated display in celebration of architect Bertrand Goldberg’s iconic Marina City. This site-specific installation incorporated the basic elements of the building as it was projected around the central core on the rooftop of Marina City. Goldberg was largely known for his disinterest in creating straight, formal buildings like his predecessor Mies van der Rohe; Luftwerk used this difference as an inspiration in this piece. Half circles and petal shaped imagery interplayed with geometric and curved lines to explore the innate characteristics of Goldberg’s architecture. Located in the center of downtown Chicago, the installation incorporated views the surrounding architecture of the city.

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Bruce Goff, a self-taught, unconventional architect was also a little-known composer. His organic architecture is spotted across the United States yet a group of his compositions for a player piano last had a public performance in 1936. This event, billed as an evening of “Music, Light, and Architecture” celebrated his compositions and architecture. Luftwerk presented an immersive installation alongside a performance by Third Coast Percussion of their arrangements the player piano compositions within the Goff-designed Ford House in Aurora Illinois.

Luftwerk’s design incorporated the music, nature, and architecture in a projection on the circular ceiling of the round house. The projected canopy above the guests animated their visual interpretation including dots from the original player piano rolls, imagery of nature, and a linear abstraction of the slats on the ceiling. Their interpretation accentuated and enlivened the physical and conceptual ideas of Goff as it interacted with the distinct home.

Convergence portrays four different people, who were asked: Where do you go to connect with yourself? Luftwerk filmed each person walking towards and away from the camera within a landscape of his or her choice. Overlapping the videos of the two different movement directions, the scenes construct moments of self-encounters. Four varying convergences were projected onto four curtain walls suspended in the shape of a square. The open square design allowed viewers to pass through the structure and view the image from both the inside and outside. Convergence reflects on the notion of self-encounter accentuated by the physical structure and material of this installation.