30 second demo clip for the 2014 Genius Loci Weimar video mapping competition.

As part of the International Audiovisual Festival held in Weimar, a competition is held to select 3 works to be projected onto the facades of historical buildings in the city. The demo video is the result of a collaboration between a friend, and artist, Cécile Combaz, and myself, and is based on the poem “Erlkönig” by Goethe.

Der Erlkönig is one of Goethe's most well-known poems and our entry is an attempt to bring the characters and themes of his text to life on the facade of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar. To reflect the international renown of the original poem, the text - read in German, English, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and French - forms the soundtrack of the project and structures its rhythm.

The video, like the poem, is in constant transition between two worlds: a dark and uncertain reality, and a colourful, animated - but ultimately deadly - imaginary world. The story is also a race against time, as the father hurries to leave the forest before death can claim his child. In the video, the seductive promises of the Erlkönig, behind which lie hidden threats, appear from within the building. The galloping horse brings us back to reality as the father tries to resist. Progressively the facade of the library is eroded by the Erlkönig's assaults, and the forest gains ground.

Genius Loci Weimar - Video Mapping Festival and Competition:
genius-loci-weimar.org/en/

3D tree objects: Chris Friesen.
Audio FX: digifishmusic / Freesound.
Multilingual voices courtesy of (in order of appearance): Rainer, Sarah, Philip, Christina, José, Cécile & Anne.