FLING handled the global PR for Genius Loci Festival Weimar 2015 and made collaborations with renowned Re:publica Festival and Tech Open Air possible. Our approach to market Genius Loci Festival upfront and outside its local realm was  to set up these collaborations as satellite events in order to introduce it to a broader audience and create a buzz that would attract international press and influencers to look further than Berlin city and allow them an exclusive peak into the entertainment and tech scene that is nestled in the East German countryside of Thuringia.

We had the chance to present visual works by Genius Loci Festival as a preview installation at Re:publica Festival and send founder Hendrik Wendler as a panelist to speak about his festival in front of an international and tech- oriented audience during Tech Open Air 2015.  

About Genius Loci Festival Weimar / Press Release:

 

Every summer since 2012, Weimar becomes a meeting point for digital avant-garde artists, culture enthusiasts and scientists. The Genius Loci Weimar festival for site-specifc audio-visual art and interactive facade projections now ranks among the leading international events in this area.

Genius Loci Weimar is where the past and the present converge: The concept of the festival is to embrace the spirit of the location. This means the reinterpretation of the architecture, history and other visible and invisible layers of meaning of buildings and the urban situation, and the subsequent visualization of these ideas using the techniques of video mapping.

To bring this to reality, Weimar is host to a competition for facade projection, for which artists from all over the world are invited to submit their work. The best applications are chosen by the residents of Weimar and the visitors to the city, as well as by an expert jury. The winners are given the opportunity to present their work as part of the festival. The events that complement the festival make Genius Loci Weimar a center for creativity and knowledge exchange, and an exceptional experience for all involved.

Make Walls Talk! Festival Locations 2015

Weimar offers an abundance of buildings and spaces that have played an important role in culture and history – also outside of the city limits. The architectural testimony of centuries past encompasses classical, modern and avant-garde, as well as the dark years of National Socialism.

Well-known fgures such as Lucas Cranach, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Gottfried Herder, Christoph Martin Wieland, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Franz Liszt, Friedrich Nietzsche, Henry van de Velde and Walter Gropius have all been active in the city, and have left their marks.

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Genius Loci Weimar Festival 7Th - 9th August 2015

Every year, new buildings and structures in and around Weimar are chosen to become a part of the competition and festival. It is the aim of Genius Loci Weimar to draw attention to the spirit of the location with respect to the history, architecture and other visible and invisible layers of meaning, and to bring these to life using the innovative techniques of the media art of video mapping.

2015 is the UNESCO Year of Light. Also politically and socially, 2015 is set to be an extremely eventful year: War at the edges of Europe, alarming political movements in Germany, and an insecure and ever-shrinking societal middle-class.

This year, Genius loci Weimar will be de-emphasising the city’s touristic and classical beacons. This time, we will be shining a light on three locations in the inner city that likewise represent eventful and affecting times: The Atrium Weimar, a former parade ground for the Nazi dictatorship, the ‘real socialist’ architectural response to this, namely the Jakobsplan, and, just a few hundred meters further on, the squatted house on Gerberstrasse, which represents individuality, tolerance, and political commitment, and whose residents and visitors play a regular and vital role in ensuring that the city of Weimar remains spared from ongoing far-right machinations – a capacity that even resulted in a personal visit from the future German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at that time the Federal Minister for Women and Youth.