Mainz aglow

Mainz leuchtet – Das Late Light Festival (Photo: Nikolas Fahlbusch / © Mainz University of Applied Sciences)

Media design students light up the downtown area

From the 28th to the 30th of September 2023, Mainz University of Applied Sciences, the state capital of Mainz and mainzplus CITYMARKETING lit up the downtown area with colorful lights at the new event Mainz leuchtet – Das Late Light Festival. Every day from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., prominent buildings were staged and illuminated by video projection.

“Everything flows, nothing stands still,” Heraclitus once proclaimed, and this very principle was at the heart of Mainz leuchtet – Das Late Light Festival. With a veritable barrage of ideas, the creative talented individuals from Mainz University of Applied Sciences, who were responsible for the artistic concept, transformed the city into a canvas for art and innovation. Mainz leuchtet – Das Late Light Festival was not only a celebration of visual art, it was also a reminder that life itself is a constant flow of change.

The various buildings and squares were bathed in stunning visual displays that embodied the diversity of life, constant change, and the transience of all things, bringing the city’s historic and iconographic buildings to life in a magical way.

Even before the official opening, interested visitors were able to take a look behind the scenes at the LUX Pavilion. At the opening of the accompanying Mainz leuchtet exhibition, Prof. Daniel Seideneder and Pascal Kulcsár presented how they had developed the festival's content with the students of their Time-Based Mediadegree program, explaining how the technology behind it works and what steps were necessary to bring the students’ animations to the facades.

The Late Light Festival was officially kicked off on September 28 at 8 pm by Mayor Nino Haase, University President Prof. Dr. Susanne Weissman, and the directors of mainzplus CITYMARKETING, Katja Mailahn and Marc André Glöckner. After the official go-ahead was signalled, the projections and light installations began to shine along the Mile of Lights: Jockel-Fuchs-Platz with Rheingoldhalle, Am Brand, mainz STORE am Markt, the east choir of Mainz Cathedral, Mainz State Theater, Deutsche Bank, Osteiner Hof, and the Kirschgarten.

The projections of the Mile of Lights were connected by Traveling Lights, a vehicle equipped with projector technology that projected moving images into the city spaces during the journey.

Design: The design for Mainz leuchtet was created in collaboration with our alumna Martina Miocevic (Mathilda Mutant).

Project directors: Prof. Gregor Ade, Prof. Olaf Hirschberg, Prof. Tjark Ihmels, Pascal Kulcsár, Prof. Daniel Seideneder

Collaboration partners: City of Mainz, Mainzplus Citymarketing, State of Rhineland-Palatinate

You can find more information and impressions of Mainz leuchtet here: