mies stage
The stage character of the New National Gallery completed in 1968 by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is the catalyst for the temporary reinterpretation of the museum. With help from 196 controllable ceiling lights installed on a grid that fits to the architecture, moving patterns of light beams that do not seem to follow a specific rule will be projected on the floor via a DMX control system. Each visitor, however, activates the controls upon entering one of the radii extending over the floor plan of the hall. It picks up movements and interprets them via the mobile beams of light. In the exhibition space the spots become placeholders for the missing artworks, whose roles the visitors in attendance take on. The building, already transparent thanks to its glass façade, experiences another opening due to the radiating light penetrating the boundaries between exterior and interior space. (JO)