A night crowd in front of a lit corner building, a street lamp above

’89 BLICKWINKEL

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FIELD OF WORK
Audiovisual Art
Video Installation
Architecture Mapping
Video Installation
Video Installation
DELIVERABLES

Participatory video installation

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INTRO

To mark the 35th anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution in Leipzig, various artistic works were realised along the demonstration route of 9 October 1989, the entire inner-city ring road. '89 BLICKWINKEL is XENORAMA's contribution: a participatory video installation on the east façade of Leipzig Central Station, in which people who lived through 1989 speak into public space.

The site carries its own history. The Monday demonstrations began in 1988 as small gatherings in the courtyard of the Nikolaikirche; only on 25 September 1989 did the demonstrators walk the Ring for the first time. From then on the station, whose 298-metre façade lines the northeastern stretch of the Ring, stood on the route, two weeks before the decisive 9 October. The installation premiered on 9 October 2024, 35 years to the day later, as part of the Lichtfest Leipzig.

Key challenges

Ten personal accounts, one collage

Faces and voices ahead of effects

A busy station as a forum

At the centre are interviews, conducted by Lea Rebecca Minow with Leipzig citizens and contemporary witnesses: Mona Ragy Enayat, Anna Biedermann, Giesela Kallenbach, Michael Jäger, Volker Külow, Stephan Bickardt, Brigitte Moritz, Reinhard Bohse, Siegbert Schefke and Tom Schremmer. Their accounts were cut into a collage of video interviews, supplemented by subtle atmospheric animations and sound, and composed for this one façade. We conceived the piece as a place where personal perspectives on 1989 are exchanged and carried into public space, to open a conversation about the social and cultural questions the revolution left behind, rather than as projection mapping in the classic sense.

'89 BLICKWINKEL was created by XENORAMA (Lorenz Potthast, Marcel Bückner, Moritz Richartz, Richard Oeckel, Tim Heinze), with animation support by Friedrich-Wohlrab and Big Cinema Leipzig as technical partner. More on Xenorama's project page and Marcel Bückner's page.

The crowd gathered before the building, one window lit with projected figures
The crowd gathered before the building, one window lit with projected figures
A projected figure in a turquoise coat on the building facade above a Saturn store sign
A projected figure in a turquoise coat on the building facade above a Saturn store sign
Faces in the crowd looking up at the projected windows
Faces in the crowd looking up at the projected windows
A beam of light over the building, a projected portrait in one window bay
A beam of light over the building, a projected portrait in one window bay
The lit window bays of the facade with the audience below
The lit window bays of the facade with the audience below
The crowd on the square, the projected facade in the distance
The crowd on the square, the projected facade in the distance
Wide view: the building's tall windows lit in warm light, the crowd filling the street
Wide view: the building's tall windows lit in warm light, the crowd filling the street
CREDITS

Created by Xenorama (Lorenz Potthast, Marcel Bückner, Moritz Richartz, Richard Oeckel, Tim Heinze)
Interviews: Lea Rebecca Minow
Animation Support: Friedrich-Wohlrab
Helping Hands: Naz Yigiter, Lucas Nützel
Technical Partner: Big Cinema Leipzig
Interview Partner: Mona Ragy Enayat, Anna Biedermann, Giesela Kallenbach, Michael Jäger, Volker Külow, Stephan Bickardt, Brigitte Moritz, Reinhard Bohse, Siegbert Schefke, Tom Schremmer