-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avignon France Hélios Festival
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Avignon Helios Festival 2020
Time Drifts Avignon by Philipp Geist 2020

Basilique Saint Pierre
VideoMapping & Ground Projection
25. Juli/ July till / bis 30. August 2020











The Artist Philipp Geist will develop the large scale walk able video mapping/ ground installation „Time Drifts - Avignon“. In his light art installation Geist interprets the themes of space and time. He avoids using canvases and projects directly on the facade Basilique Saint Pierre, on the tree, the ground and fog streaming into the plaza. Words are projected onto the ground and visitors, and they are reflected into the fog. Fog is, similar to time, always in a flux, you cannot hold or keep it. The dissolving projection symbolizes the fragmentary knowledge and understanding of life in the past and present, but knowledge is also secured and preserved in the form of text, clearly visible on the concrete. The representations of history are being animated in the moment of the visitors reflections. The dissolving projection symbolizes not only the fragmentary knowledge and understanding of the life in the past, which is to be completed, but also the memory which must be saved from disappearing and dissolving. Thus, Geist develops a dialogue with the location, his artistic work and the people who are entering and leaving the gate and the square. The visitors can be part of the installation by sending beforehand words via email. The visitor himself becomes part of the projected image on the square. Words and abstract light painting with create an immersive room.

This methodical approach to the theme 'time' is supported by the projected images themselves. Words that relate to the topic both directly and indirectly cover the whole ground of the square. Some terms and sentences are obvious references, some invite the visitor to think about the phenomenon of time and its historical and cultural connotations. There will be single words, quotations and proverbs. Words like „transition, fading, becoming, simultaneous, timeless, time gate, metamorphosis, period of time, entrance, beginning,..“ The installation invites the visitors to stay and contemplate, to detect meanings in the thick carpet of partly overlapping words, it asks the visitors to create their own sentences and imagination. The carpet's threads of words are woven chaotically, and it takes time and movements across the square to see and decipher them. It is the poetry of the texts and the dream-like atmosphere that will transform the location. For the Avignon installation, words of time and space in different languages french, english, german,… In Avignon and its long history and its special meaning the topic of time in a artistic poetic light installation is inspiring. The the installation creates a bridge between the past and the present between cultural understandings and worlds.

In the images which are projected onto the Basilique, Geist creates a pictorial, abstract imagery on the computer which also refers to time. Geometrical, spatial forms like squares, cubes, perforated planes, lines and rays, overlay each other in an on-going process and build up a complete picture in order to dissolve it right away. The various elements create a complex architecture of images which is always in a state of flux. By displaying depth and three-dimensionality, the work symbolises the constantly developing, enlarging space of continuing time lines, and represents the complex networks emerging from different spatial components spreading in the course of time.

The installation project is part of a series of installations named Time Drifts. Geist was able to present the site-specific installation in different countries and locations. 2018 in Jerusalem, 2018 Frankfurt Luminale, 2018 Regensburg, 2017 in Darmstadt Staatsmuseum, 2017/2016 Cologne Cathedral NYE, 2012 Berlin Potsdamer Platz Festival of Lights, 2008 Berlin Kulturforum ‚time fades‘, 2009 Eindhoven Glow Festival ‚timing‘, 2010 Montreal Mutek Festival ‚time drifts‘, 2011 Vancouver 125 year anniversary of the city of Vancoucer, 2012 Frankfurt Luminale (German Light Design Award/ Light Art), 2012 Berlin Potsdamer Platz Festival of Lights.

















merci!!

Sound Lukas Taido

Ville d’Avignon :
Hélios Festival
Vincent Marchaut
Fabien Chamakoff

ARTCOM DIFFUSION for technical part
Stephane Collas, Sandrine Moulet, Stéphane Didier, Bastien Léandri, Millie Shazam