SYDNEY — Now in its fourth year, Vivid Sydney is once again lighting up the harbor city and transforming iconic venues into spectacular canvases for light, music, and ideas. A major celebration of the creative industries and the biggest festival of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, Vivid Sydney — which continues through June 11 — is coming off a wildly successful 2011 edition, which attracted over 400,000 and was ranked one of the world's best ideas festivals by the Guardian.
For Vivid Sydney 2012, the German large-scale projectionists URBANSCREEN were commissioned to create a new artwork transforming the distinctive rooftop "sails" of Jørn Utzon's iconic Sydney Opera House. The amazing work explores both the unique sculptural form of the Opera House, and its role as a home for music, dance, and drama, resulting in a projection that is both sophisticated and spectacular. From gravity-defying figures that dance their way around the roof of the building to a beautiful transformation of its trademark sails into ephemeral, fluttering materials, URBANSCREEN surpassed all expectations with this amazing project.
The German group has taken light projection, video mapping, and motion graphics to extraordinary heights in their many large-scale installations, including commissions from major art galleries, international festivals and opera companies. Recent works showcase their versatile and sensitive engagement with architecture, from the dream-themed "555 Kubik" at the Hamburger Kunsthalle and a production of Mozart’s "Idomeneo" at Theatre Bremen, to the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Museums Quartier in Vienna — highlighting Creative Director Thorsten Bauer’s musical approach to institutions.
URBANSCREEN's projection is also part of Vivid LIVE (through June 3), an artist-driven festival featuring special commissions, one-off events, and Australian premieres. Legendary, influential, and emerging artists are encouraged to make the performance spaces, foyers, rehearsal rooms, and recording studios of the Sydney Opera House their own — to create something as momentous and innovative as the architecture itself.
Watch URBANSCREEN's projection on the Sydney Opera House:
This article originally appeared on ARTINFO Australia.