It is the first exhibition of works by Bill Viola in Milan: Palazzo Reale will host fifteen masterpieces by Bill Viola, representing a cross-section of his entire body of work spanning 30 years.
The topic of sustainability is also taking an increasingly prominent place in the visual arts. In his installation THE FINAL BID at the Draiflessen Collection, Mettingen, British artist Michael Pinsky addressed the issue of reusing things instead of buying new ones. 144 used chairs were auctioned off in an elaborate auction installation. The auction status of the individual chairs was indicated by how high they floated in the air. The bids created a kinetic ensemble of objects that changed constantly.
To breathe life into the installation, we converted each of the 144 electric motorized winches and made them network-compatible. We also developed the control software that allowed each winch to be controlled individually. On an online auction platform, interested parties placed their bids on the individual chairs, which were then converted into control commands for the motorized winches via our network.
Finally, our technical team carried out the elaborate installation and setup of the 144 winches in the MAIN SPACE of the Draiflessen Collection.
Images: Michael Pinsky, THE FINAL BID, © Draiflessen Collection, Mettingen/Michael Pinsky, Photos: Henning Rogge
On March 11, 2022, the piece “Ahnen” for chamber orchestra and multi-screen video projection by Maria and Ana de Alvear was premiered in the Great Hall of Haus der Musik Innsbruck. The title “Ahnen” (Ancestors) plays with the double meaning of the German word involving both ancestors and foreshadowing.
Madrid-born composer Maria de Alvear lives in Germany and Spain and seeks to reveal connections between different cultures and different art forms in her works. Video works by her sister, visual artist Ana de Alvear, often serve as inspiration and components of the compositions.
“Ahnen” was written in 2007 for two voices, hurdy-gurdy and video, but has now been performed as an orchestral work by the Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra.
235 Media handled the elaborate projection mapping onto the two narrow acoustic side walls and the back wall behind the orchestra, making the performance an intense immersive experience.
With 180 works by almost 50 artists*, the exhibition “FLOWERS! Flowers in 20th and 21st Century Art” offers a comprehensive overview of the motif of the flower in the art of the past and present century. The multi-channel video environment “Power Plants” by Hito Steyerl from 2019, set up by 235 Media in the Dortmunder U, is an example of the media-artistic further development of a theme that has inspired artists since the Baroque period until today.
The environment developed by Hito Steyerl consists of 18 LED video modules in different sizes from 50 x 100 cm to 100 x 200 cm and 18 LED text modules arranged in three steel frames. Each monitor-text unit is a “power plant” video sculpture created by neural networks. They form a virtual garden consisting of plants with ecological, medical and political powers. Here Hito Steyerl connects the concept of ruderal vegetation (from the Latin rudus ‘debris’), which sets itself up on fallow or devastated land that has been overused or kept free of vegetation, with the automated systems of reproduction and distribution of images and their effects on political systems that she has studied many times.
Mit der Errichtung des 360°-Kinos, dem „Syltdome“, erhielt das Erlebniszentrum Naturgewalten Sylt ein ganz besonderes Highlight. 235 Media übernahm die Konzeption von Innenraumgestaltung, Medientechnik, Raumakustik und Lichtdesign sowie die Planung der Lüftungstechnik.
Für das visuelle Erlebnis sorgen fünf 4K-Projektoren mit jeweils 5000 ANSI Lumen. Der Zuspielserver ist im Technikraum ca. 50 Meter vom Kino entfernt untergebracht und die Signalspeisung erfolgt latenzfrei und synchron. Ein ausgeklügeltes Beleuchtungskonzept sorgt in Abstimmung mit der Showsteuerung für „Ambient Sound & Light“ für die Wartezeit zwischen den Shows.
Im Lüftungskonzept kam das Quellluftprinzip zur Anwendung. Dabei strömt die Zuluft im Fußbodenbereich ein, die punktuell erwärmte Luft steigt hoch und wird abgesaugt. Für die Einhaltung gebotener Sicherheitsaspekte standen die Entrauchung, der Brandschutz und die Fluchtwegplanung im Fokus. Im Sinne der Barrierefreiheit wurden zwei Rollstuhlplätze eingeplant, Braille-Beschilderung und Bodenbelagswechsel für Menschen mit visuellen Beeinträchtigungen vorgesehen.
Um der visuellen 360°-Filmprojektion eine auditive Entsprechung zu geben, werden 31 Lautsprecher und vier Subwoofer nach dem Prinzip der Wellenfeldsynthese mit der Technologie des „Spacial Audio Designer – Processor (SAD-P)” gespeist. Dadurch entsteht der Eindruck einer objekthaften Wahrnehmung von Sound im Raum. Um eine störende Beschallung der umliegenden Ausstellungsbereiche zu vermeiden, wurden diverse Schallschutzmaßnahmen realisiert.
Neben den eigens produzierten Filmen für „Kräfte der Nordsee“ wird das Kino zusätzlich auch außerhalb der Öffnungszeiten als Full-Dome-Kino und Veranstaltungsort genutzt.
In Zusammenarbeit mit ntk, Düsseldorf, FH Glücksburg, Bergmann Bauingenieure, ka-Plus Ingenierbüro Vollert, JF-Architekten, Moll Akustik
Das Erlebniszentrum Naturgewalten Sylt stellt auf 1500 Quadratmetern den vielfältigen Lebensraum Wattenmeer für Besucher*innen aller Altersstufen vor. Es zeigt die Vielfalt, Schönheit und Dynamik der Meere und Küsten, die Entstehung und Geschichte von Sylt, aber auch die Naturgewalten, die auf die Insel einwirken.
Die Erweiterung und Neugestaltung des 300 Quadratmeter großen Ausstellungsbereichs „Kräfte der Nordsee“ war eine logistische Herausforderung: Zunächst musste die Bestandsausstellung abgebaut werden, um Platz für ein Full-Dome-Kino, den „Sylt-Dome“ zu schaffen. Nach dem Bau des zylindrischen Kinosaals wurde die Ausstellung in runderneuerter Form wieder eingerichtet. Gemeinsam mit ntk hat 235 Media dem Ausstellungsbereich ein zeitgemäßes Erscheinungsbild gegeben und ihn technisch auf den neuesten Stand gebracht.
Mit Wellen und Wind stehen zwei Kräfte im Fokus, die permanent auf die Insel einwirken. In der mit vielen interaktiven Elementen versehenen Ausstellung werden diese Naturphänomene anschaulich erklärt. Eine der zentralen Medieninstallation ist der 10 Meter lange interaktive Wind-Wellenkanal, an dem der Zusammenhang von Windstärken und Wellenhöhen demonstriert wird. Sechs hinter dem Kanal montierte hochauflösende 75“-Monitore visualisieren naturgetreu verschiedene Wetterlagen und -stimmungen, während auf der darüber befindlichen Wand die jeweiligen Windstärken mittels Gobo-Projektionen angezeigt werden. An einem Bedienpult bestimmen die Besucher*innen die Wind- und Wellenverhältnisse.
Mit der Errichtung des 360°-Kinos, dem „Sylt Dome“, erhält das Erlebniszentrum Naturgewalten Sylt ein weiteres Highlight. ntk und 235 Media übernahmen in Kooperation mit der US-amerikanischen Firma Evans & Sutherland die Konzeption von Innenraumgestaltung, eingesetzter Medientechnik, Raumakustik und Lichtdesign sowie die Planung der Lüftungstechnik (in Zusammenarbeit mit Ingenieurbüro Pahl und Jacobsen aus Heide). Deutschlands nördlichstes Kino hat einen Durchmesser von 10 Metern und bietet 45 Besucher*innen Platz. Zusätzlich verfügt es über 2 Plätze für Rollstuhlfahrer*innen. Mittels 5 Projektoren und einem mit 31 Lautsprechern und 4 Subwoofern bestückten Spatial- Sound-System ermöglicht der Sylt-Dome immersive, dreidimensionale Kinoerlebnisse. Neben dem von uns angestoßenen und von TVN, Hamburg, eigens produzierten Film für „Kräfte der Nordsee“ wird das Kino zusätzlich außerhalb der Öffnungszeiten als Full-Dome-Kino und Veranstaltungsort genutzt.
Partner:
nowakteufelknyrim | design & exhibition architecture, Düsseldorf
Evans & Sutherland, Salt Lake City, USA
The Red House Monschau opened its revised and expanded permanent exhibition. The patrician house from the middle of the 18th century originally served as the home and central business premises of the Scheibler cloth-furnishing dynasty and today offers unique insights into late Baroque living and everyday life, pre-industrial cloth manufacturing processes and historical fashion trends as well as information about the wool route, which links the cultural heritage of the cloth-furnishing region in the three-country region around Aachen.
The new part of the exhibition is dedicated to the elaborate production of cloth with interactive monitor and projection installations – realised by 235 Media – and a media slider, vividly conveys the family’s trade relations and sheds light on the city’s history, which is interwoven with it. In a kind of practical application, elaborate weaving samples presented in pattern books can be projected vividly as waistcoats by visitors. An atmospheric experience is conveyed by an audiovisually staged projection that brings back to life the vaulted cellar supported by rusticated columns where wool was once washed.
In the presence of the Federal Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger, the POWER2CHANGE – MISSION ENERGIEWENDE exhibition was opened at Henrichshütte Hattingen on Aug. 13, 2022. Four complex thematic islands explore the question of how new technologies can help to master the energy transition in order to stop climate change. The production of green electricity and alternative fuels, the use of CO₂ as a raw material for the chemical industry and many other topics are presented in a compact and comprehensible way with carefully curated exhibits.
235 Media designed and implemented four large interactive tangible tables, four analog hands-on exhibits, four digital solution games, two augmented reality stations and many other media stations using a wide variety of technologies for the traveling exhibition.
The exhibition will go to the Klimahaus Bremerhaven in December and will then be shown at five other locations in Germany.
On February 23, 2022, the “Congress on Digitization (in) Legal Education JURTECH:JURSTUDY” organized by the Ministry of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia took place at Düsseldorf Airport. The animation of the North Rhine-Westphalian state coat of arms, which we produced and which had already been shown on 22 LED meshes on the exterior façade of the Behrens Building at the “75 Years of NRW” exhibition, served as the key visual. In its revised form, the animation now ran on a 4k LED video wall.
The cross-border exhibition moved from Berlin to Moscow. It brings together painting, sculpture, video and new media, photography, installation, drawing and object art by around 90 artists* from 34 countries, representing different generations, genders and regions. Their works represent the diversity and vitality of Europe’s contemporary art scene, from Portugal to Russia, from Norway to Turkey.
As in Berlin, 235 Media has been responsible for setting up and furnishing the works with media technology elements.
The exhibition is a cooperation with Petersburger Dialog e. V., Tempelhof Projekt GmbH and Tretyakov Gallery. Diversity United is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.
The next and last stop of the traveling exhibition will be the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
The DASA Working World Exhibition in Dortmund is the permanent educational active facility of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The new temporary/travelling exhibition “Artificial Intelligence. An exhibition about people, data and control” is dedicated to the ambivalence of new developments in the field of artificial intelligence, which is gradually permeating the home, the working world and public space. Among other things, the exhibition uses various media stations to educate visitors about the opportunities and dangers of the new technology.
235 Media conceived the media technology, developed the screen design of the media stations, wrote software, built sensors, produced short films, realised the hardware and set it up in the exhibition.
Further stations of the exhibition are the Technical Museum Vienna, the Tekniska museet Stockholm, and the Parque de las Ciencias in Granada.
In the centre of Stuttgart, a new urban district is being built on an area of 85 hectares, the Rosenstein Quarter. In order to involve citizens in the planning process and to ask for their opinions and wishes, the City of Stuttgart has set up an exhibition space of approximately 225 square metres near the City Hall.
The central element is a 23 square metre “living city model” that serves as a projection surface for animations showing the various developments of the future quarter that can be selected on four tablets. Other attractive media stations include an “interactive screen”, an interactive quiz, several listening stations and an interactive photo wall where visitors can take selfies in front of pictures of the future quarter.
235 Media created the software, supplied and set up the media technology, including soft-edge projections and corona-compliant touchless interaction technology.
In collaboration with Dr Ulrich Hermanns | Ausstellung Medien Transfer GmbH, Münster.
To mark the 75th anniversary of North Rhine-Westphalia, a large exhibition was held in the Behrens building in Düsseldorf, which served as the seat of the first NRW minister-presidents from 1946 onwards. A variety of topics such as flight, expulsion, industry and economy, but also more mundane topics such as football, were presented on an exhibition area of approximately 1,200 square metres. At the same time, the show was the opening exhibition for the future “House of History North Rhine-Westphalia”, which will be realised in the Behrens building.
235 Media produced two interactive media installations for the exhibition: At “Where do you come from?” visitors could state their origins and those of their parents and grandparents and understand what role immigration plays in North Rhine-Westphalia. Another station allowed the audience to define topics that are considered future challenges for the federal state.
In the foyer we realised a 270° video panorama that was projected onto nine surfaces.
For the front of the building, we equipped 22 of the 48 windows on the third floor with LED meshes, for which we created an animation based on the state flag.
In collaboration with gewerkdesign, Berlin.
As part of the media enhancement of the cultural-historical exhibition at Altena Castle, 235 Media produced seven videos for Pepper’s Ghost installations as well as wall and floor projections. Seven characters from contemporary history present historically authenticated facts and anecdotes that are closely related to the town of Altena and the exhibition site.
The filming took place in a green-screen studio in Cologne. The entire production – from casting the actors to shooting and post-production – was carried out by the 235 Media team.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 american artist Bill Viola uses since the 1970s personal and universal experiences to shape his work, addressing his emotional and spiritual conflict with key metaphysical topics such as life, death and transformation.
The exhibition called “Via Mistica” took place in the Spanish city of Cuenca and showed 16 pieces of his art. The works of the media artist were appropriately distributed to four “sacred” places in the historic center of Cuenca. These include the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español, the churches of San Miguel and San Andrés and the Escuela de Arte José María Cruz Novillo Gallery in the former church of Las Angélicas.
235 MEDIA was responsible for the technical planning and support of the exhibition, delivered key components of the media technology and realised the technical set-up and dismantling.
Other exhibitions by Bill Viola, which took place in the Caixa Forum Barcelona, in La Nava Salinas on Ibiza, in the SESC Paulista in Sao Paulo and in the Moritzkirche church in Augsburg, were also technically managed by 235 MEDIA.
The team at the Historical Museum of Frankfurt has researched the city for ten years and developed new exhibition concepts and presentation ideas. Since its reopening in October 2017, around 4100 square metres of exhibition space in the new building and 1800 square metres in the Saalhof are now open to visitors. The major exhibitions “Frankfurt then?” and Frankfurt Now!” plus two special exhibitions on the “making of” the new museum as well as the history and the future of the city laboratory invite intensive engagement with the city’s past and present.
235 MEDIA supplied all the media technology for the exhibitions in the two buildings, implemented a range of special designs and the technology for all the interactive installations.
Of the seven international Guggenheim museums, the Guggenheim Bilbao is the most spectacular. Frank O. Gehry’s famous deconstructivist building is housing the exhibition “Bill Viola: A Retrospective”, which provides a thematic and chronological cross-section of works by one of the most important artists of our time. The retrospective begins with his early single-channel videotapes, including iconic works such as “The Reflecting Pool” (1977–79) and “Four Songs” (1976), where the central themes of Viola’s work were already evident: time and its deconstruction, the exploration of human existence, and experimentation with the media manipulation of images and sounds. Significant works from the 80s, 90s and 2000s trace the development of the large-scale audiovisual masterpieces that brought Bill Viola worldwide renown, and which reveal their full magic in the Guggenheim Bilbao.
Since 2007, 235 MEDIA has been responsible for providing and installing the complex media technology for all of Bill Viola’s major exhibitions in Europe, including the Guggenheim Bilbao, the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, and the Grand Palais in Paris.
As part of the 2017 Anniversary of the Reformation, the Deichtorhallen Hamburg is presenting a large exhibition of Bill Viola’s works. In his works, the American artist deals with personal as well as universal experiences, through which he presents his emotional and spiritual confrontation with important metaphysical themes such as life, death and transformation.
The exhibition will show 13 of Viola’s cinematic works, including huge video installations up to ten metres in height, which will transform the architecture of the Deichtorhallen’s darkened Hall for Contemporary Art into a cathedral of the 21st century.
The technical planning and implementation was undertaken by 235 MEDIA, who will also provide the video and audio technology. For this exhibition, 235 MEDIA designed and built a custom screen measuring 5.6 metres in width and 10 metres in height, in an extremely slimline design.
Photos: Felix Krebs / Deichtorhallen
© Bill Viola Studio
ROM AG is a Belgian producer of upholstered furniture, headquartered in Eupen. This family-owned company was founded in 1961, and currently has a total of around 900 employees in four locations. Every year, the company sells more than 30,000 fabric and leather furniture suites in more than 20 countries. In recent years, ROM AG has specialised in the IT-supported configuration of upholstered furniture, and the networking of upholstered furniture with smart home systems.
For the first “LivingROM” shop, 235 MEDIA collaborated with ROM AG to create an interactive sample wall which allows customers to configure combinations of sofas, carpets and side tables to their own requirements. As soon as one of the wall’s approx. 500 fabric samples is placed on the table, the corresponding groups of fabrics and recommendations are illuminated on the wall in precise detail by means of projection mapping. The sample wall is also designed to interact bidirectionally with the 3D configuration software specially developed by ROM AG.
In the new special exhibition “energie.wenden” of the Deutsches Museum in Munich, the world´s largest science and technology museum, everything revolves around the provision, distribution and storage of energy. By means of exhibits, demonstrations and media installations, visitors can experience how environmental compatibility, profitability and social justice can be reconciled.
235 MEDIA implemented the media technology for 18 audio-visual media installations. The sensor technology and evaluation electronics of the predominantly interactive exhibits were developed by 235 MEDIA itself.
The State Museum of Natural History in Karlsruhe is one of the most important natural history museums in Germany. With its combination of museum exhibits and live animals in large aquariums and terrariums, this museum offers a particularly unique experience. Exotic animals such as crocodiles and sharks can be found here, as well as Germany’s largest living coral reef.
The new permanent exhibition “Form and Function – Inspired by Nature”, which opened on 27th July 2016 in the refurbished West Wing, concentrates on evolution and bionics. Across an exhibition area of 800 m², visitors can discover the techniques developed by animals and plants in order to adapt to the wide range of environmental influences throughout the course of evolution. With a large number of media stations, visitors are taught about what people can learn from nature to upgrade or develop technical devices.
235 MEDIA realised the media productions and IT technology for 21 installations.
For the showroom of the company Hapimag in Hamburg 235 MEDIA developed and realized the complete media concept. This communicates the Hapimag holiday world to visitors in an interactive way.
An interactive display window identifies passers-by and shows them videos and current offers. In the showroom an animated multitouch water surface shows visitors the holiday world of the Hapimag resorts. Activation of themes allows visitors to find information using text images and videos of the worldwide locations. Images and videos from the resorts are alternated on six digital screen frames. That holiday feeling is enhanced with sounds of the sea.
For those who wish to dive deeper into the holiday world, you can find out more about the various themed worlds using interactive tokens, which are fitted with RFID, to activate videos on a 4K monitor.
On 22 February, the six new underground stations on the Wehrhahn line were opened in Düsseldorf. This extraordinary project was completed after a 15-year collaboration between architects, artists, engineers and the municipal authority.
The Benrather Straße station was designed by the installation artist Thomas Stricker under the project name “Heaven above, heaven below” (German: Himmel oben, Himmel unten). The entire intermediate level, which is around 70 x 15 m, replicates the inside of a spaceship. Six large video screens were built into the metal walls, showing planets of our solar system and stars in the Milky Way. Together, the six animations form a complete film which is displayed on the six screens in such a way as to give the impression of travelling through space; thus creating the illusion that the entire station is flying through space. The installation brings the heavens to the earth, swaps up for down and transforms heavy to light. The vastness of the universe is transferred to the confines of the underground. The architecture appears mobile, like a spaceship moving through the infinite expanse of space.
235 MEDIA designed the media technology and installed the feed technology, as well as devising the animations in cooperation with Thomas Stricker.
Full press reports from The New York Times and the Süddeutsche Zeitung can be found using the following links.
PARTNERS:
Artistic conception and realization: Thomas Stricker
Architecture: netzwerkarchitekten, Darmstadt
Media planning, film production: 235 MEDIA, Köln
Client: City Administration Düsseldorf
Photos: Thomas Stricker
Nine museums in eight cities on the Rhine and Ruhr have joined forces to present contemporary art from China in the most extensive exhibition Europe has ever known in its museums. Around 120 artists and 500 works of painting, photography, calligraphy, ink painting, sculpture, installation and video art represent a cross-section of the current artistic positions and trends in the world’s largest economy.
Featuring 25 video and sound installations, the “Glaskasten” sculpture museum in Marl makes up the setting for the main media art venue. One of the technical highlights of “CHINA 8” is to be found at the “NRW-Forum” in Dusseldorf in the form of “Related to YA”, an installation by Wang Gongxin: the visitor is visually and acoustically catapulted into a world full of vibrations, shocks, clacking sounds and twitching pictures on nine synchronised vertical projections that reflect the hustle and the bustle of everyday life in China.
235 MEDIA completed the entire media-technology set-up in a mere ten days for 44 video installations at eight venues. A total of 92 monitors, ranging from 19 to 75 inches diagonal, along with 31 projectors and 112 media players were mounted, installed or set-up, all connected by several kilometres of cable, which proved to be a major logistical challenge.
The Ambient Festival took place in year 2015 in St Apostle’s church under the theme IMPERFECTIO ET MISERICORDIA (imperfection and compassion in Latin). Under this heading, the Ambient Festival, now in its tenth year, quite consciously attempted to develop the theme of courage to improvise and experiment, as opposed to perfection.
For each of the ten musicians and bands at the Ambient Festival, 235 MEDIA developed room-filling video compositions, which played to match the sounds and rhythms of the entire church space, using 2-5 centrally controlled video projectors.
At the threshold of science and art, the exhibition around the theme of outer space showed a range of exhibits from the areas of research, technology, history, art and literature. The curators deployed a poetic panorama of artefacts from space and astronomy, documentary material, movies, comics, space design, artistic works and multimedia installations which covered the enormous spectrum of the topic which has fascinated humanity for thousands of years and which has lost none of its appeal.
Reminiscent of the legendary cockpit of the spaceship Orion, one of the 60`s German TV series “Raumpatrouille“, whose controls had been created in part from re-purposed household appliances, 235 MEDIA realised the installation “Countdown minus 10” for the exhibition in the form of a “media cockpit”, an interactive table with a wall projection where visitors could take a flight through the history of space travel. Spread over five main themes, 235 MEDIA produced a total of 19 comprehensive animations which included surprising facts, images and films.
The installation “Countdown minus 10” was designed, created, editorially overseen, programmed and technically realised by 235 MEDIA.
“Outer Space has become a unique show because this is where facts and fiction, art and science really meet on a par.”
(Welt am Sonntag, Stefan Keim, 5 October 2014)
In the converted buildings of the former “Grube Anna” coal mine the ENERGETICON adventure museum opened its doors in August 2014 in Alsdorf with four large-scale permanent exhibition areas: “The History of Sun and Earth”, “The History of the Fossil Industrial Age”, “Energy Transition” and “The History of the Regenerative Industrial Age”. In a vivid manner ENERGETICON explains to its visitors the necessary energy transition from the nuclear/fossil age to the age of renewable energy in a global context. The 700-meter arena with about 30 stages focusses on strong visual and haptic forms in the presentation of the complex subject of energy.
235 MEDIA has realized a total of 17 partly multi-part and interactive media installations. The range of services covered by 235 MEDIA included production management, concept and storyboard creation, editing and adaptation of scientific content, wireframing, development of the look and feel, usability engineering, creation of animations and movies, audio production including directing of the voice recordings and multi-channel sound design, as well as the entire post production process.
For a special thrill, 235 MEDIA realized a 3D animation for ceiling monitors and a Body-Shake-System in an elevator which creates the illusion of a mine ride at a depth of hundreds of meters even though the real journey in fact is just a few meters. The coal mine being accessible in this way was equipped with audio and video productions by 235 MEDIA and gives a vivid impression of the everyday work of a miner.
PARTNERS:
In cooperation with Atelier Brückner
The city of Aachen recently commemorated the 1200th anniversary of the death of Charlemagne by hosting a three-part exhibition dedicated to the ruler of the Frankish Empire. The trio of exhibitions held under the title of “Karl der Große. Macht Kunst Schätze” (‘Charlemagne. Power, Art and Treasures’) was also accompanied by the presentation of the city’s new museum, the “Centre Charlemagne”, to visitors.
The new museum uses four epochs to demonstrate to visitors how the history of the city of Aachen is inseparably linked to the history of Europe as a whole.
Its exhibition is divided up into four parts, each focusing on a different epoch and combining historic and artistic exhibits with multimedia presentations.
235 MEDIA was involved in the concept development and exhibition planning for the museum and was responsible for the implementation of the media planning, the detailed planning of all media installations and the screen design.
PARTNERS:
In collaboration with Dr. Ulrich Hermanns Medien Ausstellung Transfer and cultural institution of the city of Aachen.