Israeli lighting designer Martin Adin of Pyromania presented his stunning “Photographia – Painting with Light” installation at the 2016 ‘Light in Jerusalem’ festival of light, which involved projecting onto and lighting a large section of the city’s famous ‘Old City of Jerusalem’ close to Jaffa Gate, one of the main entrances to the old city.
Martin used 12 x BMFL Blades, 8 x BMFL Spots and 12 x Pointes for the lighting element of his piece, which mixed the mediums of lighting and monumental projection to illuminate a section of the wall approximately 100 metres long.
The idea was to build a 10 minute animated show that painted the wall with light … examining the connection between the ancient stone wall and the cutting-edge technology of the lighting fixtures that are bringing it to life in multiple layers. Using this “magnificent historical heirloom as a canvas for the work was the challenge” explains Martin whose aim was to create beautiful and profound images without these overshadowing the wall complete with the glory and memories of the past.
The week-long annual event enabled the public to see and appreciate the city with some completely new perspectives through the work and imaginations of a series of carefully selected Israeli and international light artists. The unique and vibrant results drew in over 250,000 visitors to the historically significant city.
Martin had seen the BMFL Blades – supplied by Danor Rental – in action on some other shows and in fact, Photographia was conceptualized after seeing the technical abilities of the fixtures. “The brightness, the optics and the variety of possibilities made me want to explore with them on a wide canvas,” he explains.
The BMFL range has enjoyed massive success in Israel and is one of the first-choice moving lights for leading designers, and Martin reckoned the BMFL Blades would be perfect to throw between 70 and 210 metres … and still be visible on the rough stone surface of the wall.
The BMFL Blade shutters enabled him to apply the light exactly where it was needed to frame and interact with the projections.
The fixtures were all rigged on two 4 metre high ground supported trussing structures set up across the road about 70 metres away from the area of illuminated wall.BMFL
The BMFLs were used for colouring and texturing the wall around the projections, while the Pointes fired up into the night skies, creating piercing beam effects and drawing people to the site as they could be seen from far away.
“The fixtures were amazing! They provided a clean picture with incredible colours,” he declared.
The was no soundtrack to the show, so people could really concentrate on the visual pictures and let their thoughts and imaginations flow as the lighting and projection sequences unfolded. They were transfixed by the beauty and power of the giant images.
The versatile feature set of the BMFLs allowed Martin to create a huge array of looks, presented as animations, and the framing shutters helped produce super-bright slices of light mixed in with intricate patterns. He also projected lighting onto the amassed crowds enveloping them in the installation.
Lighting was programmed and controlled by Ronen Ben Harush, and the reactions from the public and the various professional staff working on the event were hugely positive.
“Most people could not believe it was not a projector!” states Martin, who also thinks Robe has immensely improved the quality and features of their moving light ranges in recent years.
“This project left a strong impression on me and I will undoubtedly use BMFLs again,” he concluded.
Erez Hadar from Danor commented, “It was really interesting to see BMFLs used for creating in an unusual and different way to help create this work. They helped Martin add depth and resonance to the projections, and the mix of pure light and projection seamlessly meshed into a thought provoking piece of digital art”.
Photos: Ronen Ben Harosh
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