Client: Museums of Altena Castle
September 2021
235 Media successfully completed the filming of seven historical personalities for the historical exhibition at Altena Castle in the planet nippes studio.
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235 Media successfully completed the filming of seven historical personalities for the historical exhibition at Altena Castle in the planet nippes studio.
More information >>
235 Media advised the exhibition organisers and supplied and installed the media technology. Various special constructions were used.
Learn more on the project site >>
The special exhibition Stonehenge in Herne in the LWL Archaeological Museum Herne presents the latest research results on what is probably Europe’s best-known archaeological monument. In the 16 thematic areas, there are detailed 1:1 replicas of the mighty megaliths, analogue and virtually reconstructed landscapes, 25 media stations and selected finds from English archaeology and the LWL Archaeology for Westphalia.
Visitors go on a journey through time, juxtaposing the history of Stonhenge with developments in Westphalia and the Ruhr region at the same time. For here too, over 4,500 years ago, and in part even earlier than in southern England, megalithic (mega = large, lithos = stone) structures were created that served as social meeting places in a landscape increasingly shaped by humans.
235 Media advised the exhibition organisers and supplied and installed the media technology. Various special constructions individually designed by us, such as extendable cantilever arms for projector assembly, were used.
Bill Viola’s first solo exhibition in Finland takes place in the underground exhibition spaces of the Amos Rex Art Museum in Helsinki, which opened in 2018. The exhibition presents twelve works from the artist’s late career (1994–2015) and the video game The Night Journey, a collaboration between Bill Viola Studio and USC Game Innovation Lab. In addition to large immersive projections, the exhibition features quiet installations and smaller, more intimate works. Common to all of Bill Viola’s works is their reflection on central themes of human existence: birth, life, death and spirituality.
As always when the Bill Viola Studio exhibits in Europe, 235 Media has taken over the technical planning and realization and supplied the video and audio technology.
Video of the game The Night Journey
Bill Viola, Night Vigil (detail), 2005/2009. Photo: Kira Perov © Bill Viola Studio
235 Media has taken over the technical planning and realization and supplied the video and audio technology – as always when the Bill Viola Studio exhibits in Europe.
Learn more on the project site >>
The exhibition “Into the Light” shows 10 works by the American artist Bill Viola from 1976 to 2013. Viola has been working with video for almost fifty years, exploring its technical and aesthetic possibilities. His video installations offer the viewer a holistic experience and often deal with philosophical, psychological and spiritual themes. The exhibition shows 12 video installations as well as a selection of older single-channel works. At the beginning of his career, Viola experimented with video effects and time manipulation. Later, he incorporated classical themes from art history and worked on a video installation for Wagner’s opera “Tristan and Isolde”. Viola’s art was inspired by mythology, Christian mysticism, Islamic Sufism and Buddhism.
The museum has commissioned 235 Media with the technical realization of all installations.
The IMAI – Inter Media Art Institute in Düsseldorf turns 15 years old. The founders and managing directors of 235 Media, Axel Wirths and Ulrich Leistner, congratulate!
235 Media co-conceived the RTL-HOLOCIRCLE appearance in cooperation with EYE SYSTEMS, created the content and provided the technical equipment and the video operator.
Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln/Marleen Scholten © Boaz Kaizman
235 Media designed, provided and installed all the technology for the elaborate video/audio installation – 16 videos on 7 projectors, surround sound and individual audio experience via headphones.
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For the celebratory year “2021. 1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany”, the Museum Ludwig has invited the artist Boaz Kaizman (born 1962 in Tel Aviv, lives and works in Cologne) to develop a new work that will enter the museum’s collection following the exhibition. The large-format video installation created by Boaz Kaizman consists of a total of 16 films projected in a complex choreography by seven video projectors onto two walls of the large exhibition hall. The spatial sound also follows compositional principles, but the sound tracks of all the films can also be listened to individually in their entirety via headphones.
235 Media designed, provided and installed all the technology for the elaborate video/audio installation.
235 Media installed several room-sized monitor and projection works.
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Andy Warhol is without a doubt the number one Pop artist. The Museum Ludwig in Cologne is dedicating a major retrospective to him with over one hundred works. Alongside art-historical icons such as the Elvis Presley, Electric Chair and Marilyn Monroe Series or Campbell’s Soup Cans and Brillo Boxes, the exhibition also presents films and other media works that perhaps most clearly reveal Warhol’s interest in a diverse, queer counterculture that was based in his New York studio, the Factory. The exhibition is evidence that Andy Warhol’s work remains highly relevant in our time, when an ever-increasing number of people are calling for the recognition and promotion of cultural and gender diversity.
235 Media installed several room-sized monitor and projection works. These included “Screen Tests,” with a projection area of nearly 80 square meters, and “Exploding Plastic Inevitable,” a spatial installation with 14 monitors.
“Screen Tests” (1964–66) are a series of black-and-white film portraits. They show a variety of people – usually from the neck up against plain backgrounds – many of whom were part of the mid-1960s New York cultural scene. Under Warhol’s direction, the sitters attempted to sit motionless for about three minutes while being filmed in slow motion. The films represented a new kind of portraiture – a slow-moving, almost still image of a person. The “Exploding Plastic Inevitable” was a series of multimedia events organized by Andy Warhol in 1966/67. They included performances by The Velvet Underground & Nico, screenings of Warhol’s films, and performances by Factory regulars.
Andy Warhol Now is a cooperation of Cologne’s Museum Ludwig and London’s Tate Modern. Other venues include the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado.
For copyright reasons, we only show images taken during the installation process and to document our own work.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier opened the major European art exhibition Diversity United at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin on 8 June 2021. Diversity United presents an artistic tour d’horizon of Europe currently. The transnational exhibition shows paintings, sculptures, video art, new media, photographies, installations, drawings and object art by about 90 artists from 34 countries. They represent different generations, genders and regions and their work reflects the phenomenal diversity and vitality of Europe’s contemporary art scene – from Portugal to Russia, from Norway to Turkey. The works on display shed light on themes such as freedom and democracy, migration and territory, political and personal identity, utopias and fears, which also revolve around the current pandemic. Diversity United reflects the complexity of the European idea and its social realities in a globalized world.
The exhibition is in cooperation with Petersburg Dialogue (Petersburger Dialog e.V.), Tempelhof Projects (Tempelhof Projekt GmbH) and the Tretyakov Gallery. Diversity United is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.
235 Media was responsible for planning and installing all media installations by, among others, Christian Boltanski, Ulla von Brandenburg, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Richard Mosse, Anri Sala, Tristan Schulze, Luc Tuymans and Nil Yalter.
Other stops include the New Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
A bilingual media guide app (EN|DE) is available for free download from the Apple Store and Google Play under the title “Diversity United”.
More information is available online at www.diversity-united.com and www.stiftungkunst.de.
235 Media provided the setup of media installations for the exhibition Diversity United in Hangar 2+3 of Tempelhof Airport in Berlin. The exhibition was opened on June 8 by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Find out more on the Projectsite >>
For the Sudetendeutsches Museum in Munich 235 Media designed and realized over 30 media installations.
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The Museum of Applied Arts Cologne is dedicating its first monographic exhibition to the collective with “Design Gruppe Pentagon”.
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In the Draiflessen Collection in Mettingen, the conceptual artist Mischa Kuball (*1959) devotes himself to the work and perception of the expressionist painter Emil Nolde (1867-1956).
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The City of Cologne’s NS Documentation Center expands its educational offerings with an interactive game for the promotion of democracy.
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For the new exhibition area “Regenwald im Netzwerk” of the Museum Alexander Koenig we realized an interactive installation about the rain forest.
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In the course of lignite mining in the Lusatian mining district, extensive archaeological excavations were undertaken, which contributed significantly to the understanding of the cultural and historical development of the region. Among other things, an early medieval Slavic fortification was discovered, which was reconstructed at its original location. It houses one of the most modern archaeological exhibitions in Germany.
Original finds are impressively presented in showcases. Overall historical contexts, but also interesting details, are conveyed in the form of text, film and animation on the latest digital media.
235 Media installed four projections, eight interactive touch monitors and nine additional showcase monitors. In addition, a media guide was created to complement the knowledge transfer.
The Draiflessen Collection has an extensive collection of books and prints, which is one of the most important Dutch special libraries for the 17th and 18th centuries. The collection of approximately 4000 objects includes many delicate specimens of high antiquarian value, so it is not accessible to every visitor. In order to present some selected pieces to a wide audience, 235 Media developed interactive books.
At first glance, this medium looks like an ordinary book made of bound paper with blank pages. But only a few moments after opening, the pages are filled with life through a combination of camera recognition and front projection. In combination with hand-painted pages, this results in a fascinating interplay of digital and analog media with high haptic quality.
235 Media created several interactive books that are permanently displayed in the archive rooms. In addition, further books were produced for the exhibitions “Seestücke” (November 5, 2020 – May 9, 2021) and “Vom Wesen der Landschaft” (September 6, 2019 – February 16, 2020).
In the Draiflessen Collection in Mettingen, the conceptual artist Mischa Kuball (*1959) devotes himself to the work and perception of the expressionist painter Emil Nolde (1867-1956). In the context of the exhibition Emil Nolde – a critical approach by Mischa Kuball”, Kuball examines discourses on the historical person and deals, among other things, with mechanisms of artistic self-staging.
235 Media installed six space-filling projections with a size of up to 49 square meters.
The Museum für Angewandte Kunst is dedicating its first monographic exhibition to the collective with “Design Gruppe Pentagon”. Founded in 1985 by Gerd Arens, Wolfgang Laubersheimer, Reinhard Müller, Ralph Sommer, and Meyer Voggenreiter, the members quickly became protagonists of New German Design. They combined materials such as steel and plexiglass not only with stone, rubber and leather, but also with everyday objects. In 1987, the collective was part of documenta 8 and at the Biennale in São Paulo with the project “Café Casino”.
In the central exhibition hall of the MAK, the group’s furniture is presented in a space-consuming installation. The works are positioned in front of a huge projection surface. A film collage can be seen on it, which reflects on the 1980s and thus places the works in a historical context.
235 Media produced an almost borderless projection surface 17 m wide and 5.2 m high for this purpose, which was installed behind the podium with the staged design objects and pieces of furniture. The 90 square meters projection surface was fed by two 15,000 ANSI lumen projectors using the softedge method and a video server as feed. The projection was adapted using mapping technology in such a way that the pieces of furniture staged on the podium were cut out of the projection and could not cast any shadows.
The City of Cologne’s NS Documentation Center is the largest local memorial site in the Federal Republic of Germany dedicated to commemorating, communicating and researching the Nazi era. The 3rd floor of the building will be converted in the course of a spatial expansion into a fictitious place of experience, in which the participants can deal with various social issues. The “House of Remembrance and Democracy” is thus expanding its educational offerings with an interactive game for the promotion of democracy: “Tristan da Cunha – Adventure Democracy on an Island”
In the course of the game, visitors pass through 12 rooms. In the style of the game idea known as “Escape Room”, groups of 5 visitors each playfully solve social problems and questions. The visitor guidance is realized by a targeted combination of audiovisual means, with recurring sound, light and video elements guiding the participants through the rooms.
235 Media planned the complex media technology and a complete networking of the rooms including a central control room. In addition, 235 Media designed the programming structure as well as the light and sound design.
In October 2020, the Sudeten German Museum opened in the middle of Munich with an impressive building on the edge of the Isar river. The building and the exhibition were designed according to the most modern museum presentation concepts with the participation of German and Czech scientists and historians. It is the new centerpiece of the remembrance of the history, fate and cultural achievements of the 19 different German-speaking population groups that lived for centuries in the Kingdom of Bohemia and the later Czech Republic.
On five levels, the themes of homeland and faith, economy and culture, nationalism and the nation state, loss and expulsion as well as post-war years and new beginnings are conveyed in German, Czech and English.
The Büro Hermanns consortium from Münster as well as Winkels Interior Design Exhibition and 235 Media as general contractor took over the complete realization from the exhibition idea to the turnkey handover.
In addition to around 900 exhibits, more than 30 media installations designed and realized by 235 Media paint a vivid picture of a multi-faceted culture: two interactive media tables, an 18-monitor video wall, a multi-vision projection on a curved, five-meter-wide projection screen, a space-consuming multimedia environment, a plastic rear-projection installation, a trilingual multimedia museum guide and numerous interactive video and audio stations.
Partners:
Dr. Ulrich Hermanns Ausstellung Medien Transfer GmbH
Winkels Interior Design Exhibition GmbH
For the new exhibition area “Regenwald im Netzwerk” of the Museum Alexander Koenig we realized an interactive installation about the rain forest.
The Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK) is one of the largest natural history research museums in Germany. In its new section it is dedicated to the importance of the rainforest ecosystem. The so-called “rainforest consumer table” illustrates how the individual consumer behavior of the visitors affects the sensitive habitat.
There are two interactive workstations, each equipped with five everyday objects. When the objects are touched, projections onto the table surface are triggered.
The pedestal in the middle of the table is a plexiglass cube, into which a detailed miniature model of a piece of rainforest is embedded. The leaf canopy of the trees towers above the table surface and serves as a projection surface on which various “health states” of the rainforest are depicted. Through pixel-exact projection-mapping, detailed representations and unusual perspectives are created.
LEDs integrated in the table pedestal also adapt to the rainforest conditions and thus vary the lighting of the miniature model.
Atmospheric sounds support the respective visualizations. These reach the player through directional loudspeakers and do not scatter into other exhibition areas.
In “Video Visionen: Medienkunstagentur 235 Media als Alternative im Kunstmarkt” Renate Buschmann and Jessica Nitsche present for the first time the decisive influence of 235 Media on the development of video and media art as well as the agency’s distribution, production and mediation strategies since the 1980s. The agency was formed out of subcultures, on the basis of media utopias and in close connection with the music culture of those years. 235 Media has been an important platform for many artists and has both initiated production processes and developed curatorial concepts. For a long time, 235 Media was the only video art distributor in Germany to offer an alternative to the traditional art market.
“Video Visionen: Die Medienkunstagentur 235 Media als Alternative im Kunstmarkt” (Edition Medienwissenschaft, Vol. 62) was released by transcript publishing, April 2020, 366 pages.
In October 2019, the Brockenhaus in the middle of the Harz National Park opened the new permanent exhibition “The Brocken as part of the NATURA 2000 protected areas network”. Visitors are extensively informed about all relevant national park topics and are made aware of the rare animal and plant species that are sensitive to interference. For this purpose, 235 Media developed scenographies with complex environments and media installations.
The exhibition begins with an interactive topographic model of Germany’s highest low mountain region. A broad spectrum of information is presented on 220 x 150 cm – from the history of the Harz Mountains to suggestions for visiting the national park. The individual themes are accompanied by illustrative slide shows on a large-format wall monitor and spoken texts, which can be heard via one-hand handsets and multimedia guides.
At the heart of the exhibition is an immersive forest simulation, which portrays the forest change in the Harz National Park in ten multimedia scenes that merge into one another. Here, the biological complexity of the natural processes during the gradual change from spruce forest to new wilderness becomes visible. Video projections, which are organically interwoven with the forest scenery, bring the forest in the Brockenhaus to life. In each forest area, a multi-channel sound design creates an individual auditory atmosphere that reacts dynamically to visitor interactions. In this exhibition area, modified VR glasses designed as panoramic binoculars serve as an in-depth information medium. Depending on the viewing direction, two films on the respective forest areas are offered in each of the four binoculars.
The video panoramas at the end of the exhibition are contemplative. In 130° video panoramas and with targeted 3D sound, the Brockenurwald, the so-called battle zone, and the top of the Brocken are portrayed in all four seasons. These unique habitats are presented with a selection of the animals found there, some of which are extremely rare.
235 Media conceived and realized the entire exhibition as general contractor in cooperation with ntk Düsseldorf.
In October 2019, the Brockenhaus in the middle of the Harz National Park opened the new permanent exhibition “The Brocken as part of the NATURA 2000 protected areas network”. Visitors are extensively informed about all relevant national park topics and are made aware of the rare animal and plant species that are sensitive to interference. For this purpose, 235 Media developed scenographies with complex environments and media installations.
Find out more on the Projectsite >>
For the opening of the exhibition „Kein Lärm Meer“ at the OZEANEUM Stralsund, we have realized a new interactive multi-touch table. It has four interaction points, each one giving the opportunity to explore three problems the ecosystem Baltic Sea is facing.
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For the opening of the exhibition „Kein Lärm Meer“ at the OZEANEUM Stralsund, we have realized a new interactive multi-touch table.
Plastic waste in the ocean, excessive traffic on sea routes and the destruction of shores caused by growing tourism are only three factors that threaten the Baltic Sea ecosystem. To alert the museum visitors to these dangers, we developed an 84 “(213 cm) 4K multi-touch table. It has four interaction points, each one giving the opportunity to explore three problems and possible solutions. The selected topics are located on a picture-filling Baltic map.
The OZEANEUM opened in the summer of 2008 and is part of the German Maritime Museum Foundation. In five fascinating permanent exhibitions, you can not only get extensive information about the exploration and exploitation of the oceans, but also marvel at true-to-scale whale models and watch real penguins training.
On the occasion of the KunstFestSpiele 2019 in Hanover, strange plants and all sorts of animals filled the Arne Jacobsen foyer. This was all part of the “Greenhouse” sound and video installation by Cologne media artist Gudrun Barenbrock, who turned the glass cube into a walk-in ‘greenhouse for pictures’. This created a complex composition of fleeting, flowing and proliferating rhythms of light and sound.
Barenbrock’s work “Greenhouse” is based on her observations of nature during numerous trips to remote areas of Central Africa, North and South America, and Asia. They are momentary snapshots documenting order and diversity in the apparent chaos of nature. Find out more on the Projectsite >>
On the occasion of the KunstFestSpiele 2019 in Hanover, strange plants and all sorts of animals filled the Arne Jacobsen foyer. This was all part of the “Greenhouse” sound and video installation by Cologne media artist Gudrun Barenbrock, who turned the glass cube into a walk-in ‘greenhouse for pictures’. This created a complex composition of fleeting, flowing and proliferating rhythms of light and sound.
Barenbrock’s work “Greenhouse” is based on her observations of nature during numerous trips to remote areas of Central Africa, North and South America, and Asia. They are momentary snapshots documenting order and diversity in the apparent chaos of nature.
235 MEDIA planned and implemented the projection and playback technology. In cooperation with the artist, 235 MEDIA conducted extensive tests in order to select the optimum projection media, and developed the framework for the gauze surfaces. The semi-transparent projection surfaces inside the greenhouse created numerous optical effects, through which projections on the floor and ceiling were duplicated and reflected onto objects outside the building, on which they were still recognizable.
The artist published an extensive video documentation on Vimeo.
Photos: Gudrun Barenbrock, Helge Krückeberg
The Alte Hafenamt (old harbour master’s office) was designed by city construction inspector and architect Friedrich Kullrich, and built in 1889. Just as it did in the past, it continues to serve as a landmark for skippers arriving in the port of Dortmund. The listed building is now home to the new “Shipping and Ports” permanent exhibition by Dortmunder Hafen AG, which provides information on shipping and modern port management. Visitors gain an insight into the history and current development of Dortmund’s port. Find out more on the Projectsite >>
For the 1000th anniversary of the St. Moritz Church in Augsburg, the american media artist Bill Viola will show four major works from March to September 2019 under the title “Infinite Journey”.
Now the time has finally come: The imai Foundation will get larger rooms at the Birkenstraße 47 in Düsseldorf, in the neighborhood of Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf and the Philara Collection and will be sharing an office floor with the Wim Wenders Foundation team.
The Alte Hafenamt (old harbour master’s office) was designed by city construction inspector and architect Friedrich Kullrich, and built in 1889. Just as it did in the past, it continues to serve as a landmark for skippers arriving in the port of Dortmund. The listed building is now home to the new “Shipping and Ports” permanent exhibition by Dortmunder Hafen AG, which provides information on shipping and modern port management. Visitors gain an insight into the history and current development of Dortmund’s port.
One of the exhibition’s highlights is a multimedia projection that takes the birth and further development of Dortmund’s port and transports it virtually to the Alte Hafenamt. A quay wall running around the virtual dock gives visitors a bird’s-eye view of the show. From three sides, visitors can glimpse into the past, present and future of Dortmund’s port.
Further fields are opened up by a fascinating audio accompaniment, as well as old film footage of Dortmund and brief statements from various sectors of the port. Each topic can be selected individually, with the overall effect being to create a very personal impression of Dortmunder Hafen AG.
235 MEDIA designed and implemented the multimedia projection.
In cooperation with bild-werk Expo & Event GmbH.