Wunderbar together | Opening the Year of German-American Friendship

When Goethe-Institute asked us to help shaping the opening ceremonies of the German Year with our illuminations, we were faced with an intriguing challenge: To illustrate the unique German-American friendship, it was our mission to project onto three completely different buildings located in three cities over a period of four days:

The iconic residence of the German ambassador, skillfully designed by Cologne architect Oswald M. Unger, was waiting for us in Washington DC.
In Atlanta, it was the Atlanta-Fulton Central Public Library, the last brutalistic building designed by famous Bauhaus architect Marcel Breuer.
In contrast, the Athenæum in Indianapolis comes in neo-Renaissance attire. Originally called “The German House”, it’s the most ornate and best preserved building of the particularly large German-American community of Indianapolis.

 

Since the buildings have such different characteristics and are located in such varyingly designated cities, we had to find three individual artistical and technical approaches to adapt to them. Only by adjusting our site-specific designs to the various architectures, we could be sure to paint a truly compelling picture of these places.

 

With WANDERWORT POETRY, we created a piece for Washington that shows the similarities between the German and American language.
The special feature of SUPERPOSITION, shown in Atlanta, was the unification of the plain Bauhaus austerity with recordings of energetic, local hip hop dancers.
In Indianapolis we used a digital, animated collage to portray important personalities of German origin – GERMAN INFLUENCERS – whose work in the USA is of particular significance.

 

Commissioned by: Goethe Institute Washington DC

my function

  • art direction for WANDERWORT POETRY, Washington

all credits:

  • 3D-Data-Setup: Thorbjörn Geisler, Moritz Horn, Lukas Neumann
  • Mockup Construction: Eike Buff & Lukas Neumann
  • Projection Engineering: Tobias Wursthorn (Intermediate Engineering)
  • Technical Direction: Sven Rolfes
  • Production Assistant: Lydia Liedtke
  • Production Management: Majo Ussat
  • Guideline concept: Majo Ussat, Till Botterweck
  • Documentation Camera: Julian Hölscher, Lukas Neumann, Moritz Horn, Ana Romão
  • Documentation Edit: Jonas Wiese
  • Documentation Music: Jonas Wiese and Janis E. Müller
  • Documentation Photos: Daniel Dobers
  • WASHINGTON DC: WANDERWORT POETRY
  • Premiere: October 3rd, 2018
  • Art Direction: Julian Hölscher
  • Sound Supervision: Jonas Wiese
  • With the support of Heeresmusikkorps Koblenz under the direction of Bertram Kleis
  • Technical Supplier on-site: RCI Systems
  • Foil covering: Majo Ussat, Timon Fleiter
  • ATLANTA: SUPERPOSITION
  • Premiere: October 5th, 2018
  • Art Direction: Daniel Rossa
  • Sound Design: Jonas Wiese
  • Dancers: 411South Atlanta
  • Justin Edwards
  • Charlotte Posey
  • Makenzie Collier
  • Christian Kelly
  • Shanorris Pollock
  • Christopher Harris
  • Chance Mizell
  • Camera recordings with dancers: Jonas Wiese & Daniel Rossa
  • Eventmanager on-site: Andreas Sengebusch
  • Technical Supplier on-site: ON Services
  • INDIANAPOLIS: GERMAN INFLUENCER
  • Premiere: October 6th, 2018
  • Art Direction: Moritz Horn
  • 2D Animation: Ana Romāo, José Buénida
  • Sound Design: Janis E. Müller
  • Concept Supervision: Erik Wankerl (moskito), Thorsten Bauer
  • Creative Director: Till Botterweck
  • Foil and Frame Covering: Wilhelm Connor
  • Technical Supplier on-site: ON Services
  • production: URBANSCREEN
  • THANKS
  • A heartfelt thank you to Lena Jöhnk, Miriam Bruns and Christoph Mücher from Goethe Institute Washington DC for this very inspiring cooperation.
  • We would also like to thank the German Ambassador, Dr. Emily Margarethe Haber, for her generosity.
  • To the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System and the City Council in Atlanta, as well as Fulton County Arts and Culture, and Andy Solomon from the Vault Gallery in Atlanta: Thank you for your support.
  • For our work in Indianapolis a great thank you goes to Cassie Stockamp, President of the Athenæum Foundation, the Arts Council of Indianapolis and Kristy Hanson for her support on site.
  • Last but not least thank you Christian Klaus for your hospitality in the Fairmont Washington DC Georgetown.