This winter, the state capital was presenting the Munich Kunstareal with a very special lighting event. Until 14 February 2021, light and video installations invited visitors to take a daily tour from Königsplatz to the Pinakothek museums from dusk to 9 p.m. The light event was not only very well received by the visitors, but has also been nominated for the Leading Cultural Destinations (LCD) Award 2021 in the category "Traveller's Awards" in the field of "best cultural festival". By liking the Munich nomination video on youtube, you can help to bring the Munich project to the forefront.
Anyone who wants to cast their vote for the Munich light action in the Kunstareal can easily do so via the following link on the video platform YouTube.
The large-scale lighting action illuminates the area with its eighteen museums and exhibition rooms, internationally renowned universities and the large number of cultural institutions. The various light installations allow visitors to experience the spatial totality of the Kunstareal by staging its unique combination of art, culture and knowledge with light and video installations.
The lighting action designed exclusively for the Kunstareal is a project of the City of Munich and was implemented with Munich video artist Betty Mü guest artists, the Department of Culture / Technology and the Kunstareal.
Due to the Corona pandemic, the lighting action will not take the form of a defined event. Instead, it is intended to inspire visitors to visit the Kunstareal at dusk, to invite them to stroll around and to offer them a quality of stay and orientation. At the same time, the aim is to encourage guests to discover the diverse cultural offerings of the Kunstareal for themselves, and of course to make use of them as soon as this is possible again.
The installation "Inside | Out" by the Munich video artist Betty Mü forms the centrepiece of the lighting event in the Kunstareal Munich. The intention: to make the Kunstareal in its entirety visible and tangible. "Inside | Out" projects, among other things, the circular form as a symbol of wholeness, of what is comprehensive and connecting, onto the facades of the Staatliche Antikensammlungen, the north side of the Pinakothek der Moderne and above the entrance of the State Museum of Egyptian Art.
As if on a large radar screen, echoes of exhibits, light and orientation points of the area appear, in a game of symmetries and reflections, surprising turns and twists, abstract to surreal, but set in motion with emotional force. "The installation is an invitation to a journey through the Kunstareal", says the artist, "in which we turn its treasures from the inside out, but also sometimes from upside down, in order to reflect and illuminate the cultural diversity of the Munich Kunstareal at this very special time".
Projections on the Staatliche Antikensammlungen: Exhibits from the Staatlichen Antikensammlungen, paintings and statues from the Lenbachhaus, drone flights and outdoor shots of the Kunstareal.
Projections onto the Pinakothek der Moderne: Exhibits from the kingdom of crystals, paintings from the Alte Pinakothek and Neue Pinakothek, exhibits from the four museums of the Pinakothek der Moderne (Die Neue Sammlung - The Design Museum, the Modern Art Collection of the Bavarian State Painting Collections, Architekturmuseum of the Technical University Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung)
Projections onto the State Museum of Egyptian Art in the building of the University for Television and Film (HFF): exhibits from the State Museum of Egyptian Art and the Museum für Abgüsse klassischer Bildwerke, drone flights and outdoor shots of the art area.
From the roofs of the Munich Kunstareal, huge beams of light shine from roof to roof, connecting the museums of the Kunstareal. They limit it spatially and at the same time reveal its dimensions. With this installation, the Munich light artist Raphael Kurig falls back on one of the essential design laws: interconnected forms are perceived as a unity.
The strip lighting extends from the Propyläen (Propylaea) to the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism and the Pinakothek museums, thus setting an example of solidarity and diversity. In keeping with this conceptual idea, Raphael Kurig also developed the motto of the overall action: "The Kunstareal combines".
The lighting installation by guest artist Yul Zeser sets the Propyläen in scene with interior lighting. The classicist building designed by Leo von Klenze forms the western end of Königsplatz while still allowing a view along the prominent west-east axis of the street. On entering the building, a second axis running orthogonally to the west-east axis appears.
Four softboxes shine outwards as well as into the interior of the building and highlight a new perspective of the Propyläen. The monumental classicist architecture of the building is in direct contrast to the soft, harmonious light.
As part of the light action, guest artist Helmut Eding will provide a different view of the "Constellation Kunstareal". Like stars in space, eighteen spheres of various sizes symbolise the macrocosm of the museums there.
Each sphere is a world in itself and at the same time part of a system. Illuminated here, the large appears in the small and the small in the large. Eding paints the round light objects by hand in graphic black and white, drawing inspiration from the visual identity of the area. Pulsating light from inside the spheres envelops the installation.
Moving lights take up the rod shapes of the façade of the Brandhorst Museum and play with the lines on the west side of the building.
At the corner of Barerstrasse and Theresienstrasse, a discreetly illuminated forest of light adds a striking atmosphere to the otherwise rather dark surroundings. This was implemented by Georgel Cita and his team (cultural department / technology).
A further installation will be added from January 2021. In the video mapping "View | Change" faces look out of the Alte Pinakothek. The artist Betty Mü takes excerpts of well-known works from the Alte and Neue Pinakothek, animates them and projects them onto the front on the east side of the Alte Pinakothek.
The eyes seem to wait for passers-by, almost lurking and watching them. When looking at them, this change of gaze may also trigger a feeling of intimacy, perhaps even cause heart palpitations and finally raise a question: Don't you want to get to know the art you have looked so deeply into your eyes?
Press photos of the lighting event and the artists can be downloaded here.
Find out more about the makers of the lighting event in the Kunstareal: Betty Mü, Yul Zeser and Helmut Eding. You can find all information here.
