OUR COLOUR REFLECTION

“Our Colour Reflection” resembles a rush of colour: more than 700 coloured mirrors cover the floor of the Schlossberg casemates in Graz. In varying diameters and heights, the mirrors reflect both the architecture and people. Colours and shapes are projected into the room. A playful and colourful, yet elegant world opens up, one that is subject to constant changes: influenced by movements of the audience, new moments and perspectives arise, again and again. Thus, Liz West’s artwork becomes a flowing exchange between viewers and their surroundings, between their own perspectives and the expansive installation.

location: Schlossbergbühne Kasematten

This installation is made possible with the kind support of E-Werk Franz.

Biography:
Liz West (b. 1985) is a British artist known for her wide-ranging works that range from the intimate to the monumental. Using a variety of materials, she explores the use of light and colour to create environments that provoke a heightened sensory awareness in the viewer, often in close engagement with the given site. Her work has been exhibited worldwide, including at St Albans Museum + Gallery, Chester Cathedral, Compton Verney, Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris, Kraftwerk Berlin, Tripostal Lille and Bangalore International Centre.

Credits:
Lichtdesign: Paul Matyschok
Soundinstallation: Cherry Seraph (alias: Sophie Russell)

SPHÄREN

Three spheres that visitors can walk into, open up in the inner courtyard of the Graz Museum Schlossberg. They are huge three-dimensional spheres defined by blurred but still legible texts. The glowing lines circle around invisible centres, and the spheres float up and down. Each of the spheres has its own thematic focus. The first displays texts by Styrian writer Rosa Pock, who writes about writing and the versatility of hands, and also about how hands ‘already touch what lies beyond,’ and thus narratively expand space. The second sphere quotes Ludwig Wittgenstein, who dealt with perception by using images, description, and language. The third sphere tells of space and spatiality, room for action and infinity. The ‘Iony’ app is required to view the digital artwork.

A projection on the fortress wall ties these augmented reality sculptures together in the courtyard and also opens up a seemingly three-dimensional space. As in other works, Eva Schlegel, Valerie Messini and Damjan Minovski also deal with the concept of space, the immaterial and the relationship between images and language in ‘Spheres’. The collaboratively developed AR sculptures in ‘Spheres’ expand the exploration of space, perception and the connection between humans and objects.

A project visiting Graz Museum Schlossberg.

Eva Schlegel, the visual artist, lives and works in Vienna. 1997-2006 Professor of Art and Photography, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna; 2011 Curator of the Austrian Pavilion, Venice Biennale. Exhibitions in Austria and abroad, including Galerie Krinzinger Vienna, Galerie Bo Bjerggaard Copenhagen, Galerie Wendi Norris San Francisco; un-limited, Ferenczy Museum, Budapest (S); Body-fiction, MNHA Museum, Luxembourg (G); New Acquisitions, Albertina (G); Japonismus, Kunstforum Vienna (G); Spaces, Kunsthalle Krems (S); Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016, India; Architecture Biennale 2015, Buenos Aires (G); Multimedia Art Museum Moscow (S); in between, MAK – Museum of Applied Arts Vienna (S); Eva Schlegel, Secession Vienna (S) Austrian Pavilion, Venice Biennale 1995; Sidney Biennale 1988 and 1992; 1991 Cadences, the New Museum, New York (G) Aperto 1988, Venice. Numerous installations and permanent works (selection): multiple voices, Oklahoma Contemporary; extension of public space, Austrian Parliament, Vienna; cloud-space, Liaunig Museum; all around the world… Rigshospitalet Copenhagen; Libelle, Museumsquartier Vienna; Novartis Campus, Basle.

POCHEN

In Julian Hölscher’s architectural projections, analogue reality always merges with digital imagery: it is an interplay between the real and the projected—embedded in a narrative context. In the case of “Pochen” on the Graz clock tower, it is a multi-layered, ambiguous narrative. The abstract work oscillates between speed and slowness, between clear sound and apparent noise, between tension and relaxation. The projection blurs the contours of the landmark, making it appear vague and thus becoming a visual challenge for the audience.

The sound design for “Pochen” was created by Thomas Werner. Warm soundscapes evoke different emotions and add an extra dimension to the work.

location: Uhrturm

This installation is made possible with the kind support of XAL.

From graphic design to 3D projection mapping: Julian Hölscher develops location and theme-specific concepts for venues and companies. His architectural projections are always based on the interplay between the existing architecture, its digital equivalents, and contextual narratives. He develops visual works in which analogue reality merges with digital imagery.

Credits:
conspetion & image: Julian Hölscher
sounddesign: Thomas Werner

VERTIGO

For their “Vertigo” project, design students at FH JOANNEUM intensively explored this year’s festival theme: intoxication. The resulting works transform the nave of Graz’s Antoniuskirche into an immersive media experience that presents different artistic interpretations, ranging from the intoxication of love to loss of control, from the struggle between nature and machines, to threatening currents. Light and sound are not only used as creative tools in these works, but are also employed specifically by students from the Media, Sound, and Interaction Design departments to create multi-layered narratives. The project was supervised by Astrid Drechsler, Daniel Fabry, Michael Kernbichler, Didi Mosbacher, and Roman Pürcher.

location: Antoniuskirche

A project visiting Gast im Volkskundemuseum.

Master’s degree students at the Institute of Design & Communication at FH JOANNEUM can specialize in various areas, including communication, media, sound, and interaction design. Light and sound also play a key role in these courses as means of working and expression, which has led to several years of cooperation with KLANGLICHT. In 2024, design students will not only be participating in the festival with their “Vertigo” project—sound designers will also be producing the KLANGLICHT audio guide, which provides information about the individual projects on site.

LOTUS PODS

These are tall capsules, scattered in large numbers across Graz’s Freiheitsplatz as if by chance. What could their purpose be? A closer look reveals that they are intertwined lines of light that form a shell. And there is more: these “Lotus Pods” by artist David Ram are by no means static. Instead, they begin to rotate when touched, i.e., through the interaction between a viewer and the sculpture. The faster they rotate, the brighter the light. The result is a visual power, that captivates playfully—out of the world and into this intense moment. When a capsule loses its momentum again, darkness fills the void left by the light. However, it is only a brief stillness and a fleeting pause before the dance begins anew.

location: Freiheitsplatz

Credits:
Text: Seppo Gründler
Sounddesign: Seppo Gründler

MANTRA MODULATION

‘Mantra Modulation’ connects the past and the present: on the stage of the theatre, a virtual kinetic sculpture comes to life through 3D glasses. In harmony with the visual movements, a generative soundscape unfolds. The audience is not only invited to immerse themselves in this space of illusion, but also to participate: at an interactive console, the visual and auditory elements of the work can be modulated: each touch shapes the world that opens up before the visitors’ eyes and tells them their own, completely individual story. This type of co-creation blurs the boundaries between art and the audience, and so creates a personal connection to the installation.

ATTENTION:
Note on the website: 3D glasses required!!! (Included in the festival pass)

location: Schauspielhaus Graz

Inspired by Karlheinz Stockhausen’s ‘MANTRA’ (1970), which unfolds a musical cosmos from a single core motif, and through multiplying sound and perception levels, ‘MANTRA MODULATION’ translates this concept into an audiovisual dimension. The historical technique of stereoscopic projection or anaglyphic images, paired with modern technology, additionally creates a bridge between the past and the present.

Biography:
Studio MO:YA is the creative studio of Roland Mariacher and Werner Huber. Since 2011, the two Austrian designers and media artists have been creating experiences that merge physical and digital worlds within their immersive spatial installations. Their work has been recognised with awards including the State Prize for Design in the ‘Design Concepts’ category and the Shenzhen Global Design Award. As lecturers at the Institute of Design and Communication at FH Joanneum, they pass on their knowledge to young designers.

Credits:
conception, images & sounddesign: Studio MO:YA

AFTEREAL

It is the magical effect of sparklers, and drawing with light in the air, that reminds us of the ‘After-real’. The image of a glowing spark is captured in the brain for a fraction of a second and immediately replaced by a new image. Image upon image, and a shining drawing is created that is not actually there.

For his project in Graz’s Burggarten, Yasuhiro Chida used hundreds of elastic moving wires that shine under UV light. Their wave-like movements create a luminous image that remains in the viewer’s memory just like the image of a sparkler. In keeping with the Japanese artist’s style, ‘After-real’ is a work that, despite the simplicity of its means, creates a deeply moving experience. Its message is: what we perceive as reality is a construct of our eyes and our brain. Despite this illusion, our eyes are the most important medium for visually exploring the world; no smartphones, no cameras, and no VR glasses could replace them.

location: Burggarten

This installation is made possible with the kind support of Industriellenvereinigung Steiermark.

Biography:
Yasuhiro Chida is a light artist from Japan. He studied architecture at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. Influenced by his personal experiences in mountaineering, ice climbing, and caving, he explores this special awareness of space in nature, as well as the impressive bodily-sense impressions in his immersive installations. The artist often uses very simple means to create impressive experiences in public spaces. In 2019, Yasuhiro Chida was awarded the audience prize at the International Light Art Award 2019 in Unna. He is also creating his own art museum, the Museum of Spatial Art in Tatsuno, Nagano, Japan.

EYE SEE YOU

Olafur Eliasson’s light sculpture ‘Eye see you’ is coming to the Orangerie. There, it invites visitors to see themselves in relation to the oldest force that keeps us alive: the sun. It gives us energy, but in times of climate change it also poses a threat. This duality in content corresponds to Eliasson’s approach of creating works that, on the one hand, are ‘only’ seen, but on the other hand question how they can be seen.

‘Eye see you’ is both simple and complex. It consists of a bowl on a tripod, a lamp with a single light frequency and two glass panes that change colour depending on the position and movement of the viewer. The resulting work allows for different interpretations: do we recognise a one-eyed and thus seeing subject or – reduced entirely to its materiality – a purely technological object? Or perhaps the centre of an entire universe?

location: Orangerie im Burggarten

Biography:
Olafur Eliasson (born 1967 in Copenhagen, Denmark) is an internationally renowned artist who works with installations, sculptures, and architectural projects. His works often deal with natural phenomena such as light, water, fog, or movement, enabling physical and social processes to be experienced.


Among his best-known projects are the monumental installation “The Weather Project” (2003) at the Tate Modern in London, which staged a giant sun in the Turbine Hall, and “Waterfalls” (2008), artificial waterfalls in public spaces in New York. His social projects, such as “Little Sun” (2012), a solar-powered lamp designed to improve access to light in regions without electricity, are also influential.
Eliasson’s works can be seen in major museums and public spaces around the world. He also teaches as professor of architecture and art at the Berlin University of the Arts. His work combines art, science, architecture, and society, and he is now one of the most influential artists of his generation.

Credits:
Commissioned by Luis Vuitton Malletier
TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection

FRESNEL

Hundreds of small mirrors are placed on the floor. They reflect the light that falls on them and cast it vertically upwards. This creates countless columns of light in the area under the dome of the mausoleum. For the brief moment in which they illuminate their surroundings, they make the space measurable, tangible and comprehensible to the human senses. The presence of light, both its column-like appearance and its upward effect, is so strong that it can still be felt even in the darkness. Gentle, sensual music accompanies the experience. It is a mysterious, moving experience of space that the audience is treated to in Yasuhiro Chida’s project ‘Fresnel’.

location: Mausoleum

Biography:
Yasuhiro Chida is a light artist from Japan. He studied architecture at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. Influenced by his personal experiences in mountaineering, ice climbing, and caving, he explores this special awareness of space in nature, as well as the impressive bodily-sense impressions in his immersive installations. The artist often uses very simple means to create impressive experiences in public spaces. In 2019, Yasuhiro Chida was awarded the audience prize at the International Light Art Award 2019 in Unna. He is also creating his own art museum, the Museum of Spatial Art in Tatsuno, Nagano, Japan.

ECHOES OF LIGHT

Our identity is like a mirror image, consisting of individual parts and constantly changing through relationships and interaction: this is the theme of the installation ‘Echoes of Light’ in Graz’s Stadtpfarrkirche. In several phases, the audience experiences a journey between fragmentation and connection. Individual reflections move through the space, their flow corresponding to the fluid nature of our own existence. Then, for just a few moments, the reflections align with each other, interact with each other, merge and suddenly no longer appear distorted, but clear and distinct.

Together with sound artist Shinji Wakasa, the Spanish artist collective Onionlab worked with inclined mirrors and interactive technologies for this project. Sensors capture not only the movements of the audience, but also their emotions, translating them in real time into an artistic landscape of light and sound. Both the physical and emotional presence of those present leaves a visual and acoustic trace that contributes to the overall experience.

location: Stadtpfarrkirche

This installation is made possible with the kind support of Ramon Llull Institut.

Biography:
Onionlab is a multidisciplinary studio that stages and produces audiovisual installations and exhibitions. Their work creates intersections between technology, design, and art. Onionlab is based in Barcelona and has more than 15 years of experience working worldwide.

Credits:
Director: Jordi Pont,
Art Director: Berta González
Producers: Juan Pablo Rocha, Eric Rubio
3D Artists: Santiago Morrison, Federico Morrison
Sound Design: Shinji Wakasa
Technical Direction: Antoni Esteban Martret
Technical Advisor: Oliver Kern

LIQUID LENSE

In Alessandro Lupi’s installation ‘Liquid Lense’, a water surface is transformed into a kind of liquid lens. Drops fall at different rhythms, waves are created, light is refracted. This results in complex shapes, waves, colours and interference fringes that spread throughout the inner courtyard of Graz City Hall. The seemingly simple observation of these visual effects becomes an almost hypnotic exercise in perception for the audience. The calm, contemplative atmosphere invites complete immersion, letting go, and even a little bit of losing oneself.

location: Innenhof Bürger:innenamt

Biography:
Alessandro Lupi was born in Genoa, Italy. He now lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
He studied at the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti in Genoa.
His work has been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Avesta Museum in Sweden and the Kunsthaus Tacheles in Berlin, among others.
In 2008, he created an installation for the Havana Biennial, which is now on permanent display at the National School of Fine Arts San Alejandro. In 2010, the City of Ljubljana commissioned him to create a sculpture to celebrate Ljubljana’s status as the UNESCO World Book Capital.
Lupi’s work focuses on light and its fusion with colour, space, and time. Each piece appears to create its own world, focusing on the concept of ‘inversion’, offering the viewer an unexpected perspective. In his works, dichotomies such as exterior-interior, freedom-prison, and life-death are cancelled out by the contemporary perception of these two aspects, without favouring any perceptive or hierarchical prevalence.

FREQUENZEN

David Reumüller, who has participated in KLANGLICHT several times, is presenting a work for the tenth anniversary in which the central elements of the festival’s name – sound and light – directly intertwine: a composition created in collaboration with his music group EXIT VOID is transferred via membranes onto a precise laser drawing, thus translating the acoustic impulse into a visual frequency in real time. In this way, sound becomes light and the audible becomes visible in the Joanneumsviertel – creating the impression that ‘Frequenzen’ (Frequencies) are breaking down the boundaries between these two artistic dimensions.

A project visiting Joanneumsviertel.

This installation is made possible with the kind support of Holding Graz.

Biography:
David Reumüller (born 1979 in Gaal, lives in Graz/Vienna) is an interdisciplinary artist who interweaves music, light, space and perception into his installations, paintings, films and projects. His works – from galleries to festivals – question identity and reality. Winner of the Graz Art Promotion Award (2021) and scholarship holder 2024.

Credits:
concept: David Reumüller
composition: Exit Void
feat.: Manfred Engelmayr,, Katrin Euller (aka Rent), Alex Kranabetter, Wolfgang Lehmann, Anja Plaschg (aka Soap&Skin), David Reumüller
Audioedit: Wolfgang Lehmann
Laser: LIVE Lasersystems

FLUX

“Flux” by Collectif Scale was created in 2021 as part of the Constellations Festival in Metz, France, and has been traveling around the world ever since, making a stop at KLANGLICHT 2025 in the Landhaushof in Graz. The moving, modular form and its luminosity captivate people everywhere and of all kinds. The multiplication of the simple body of light, the dynamics of the installation and the variations in temporal phases and speed create the impression of a seemingly organic object, which the viewer encounters sometimes in poetic, sometimes in frenetic waves.

As with other works, the artist collective’s sensual and playful installation ‘Flux’ questions the connection between light and architecture, entertainment and art, nature, humans and machines.

location: Landhaushof

This installation was realized with the kind support of Raiffeisen-Landesbank Steiermark.

Credits:
Installation: Collectif Scale
Music: Grégory Sémah
Instagram/collectifscale

ARKESTRA OF LIGHT – LIFTED

Arkestra of Light – Lifted transforms the façade of Dreifaltigkeitskirche into a living body in which light, sound and emotion merge. Using both analogue and digital animation techniques, the OchoReSotto artist collective creates moving patterns that convey an interplay of calm and intimacy, joy and energy. The audience is treated to a poetic visual symphony – precisely coordinated with the accompanying music. As if in a trance, the impressions of sensory experience blur: colours pulsate with sounds, textures echo with memories and movements convey moods. It is a world in which logic becomes vague, relying on sight and hearing, intuition and feeling.

location: Dreifaltigkeitskirche

This installation is made possible with the kind support of Grazer Wechselseitigen Versicherung.

Biography:
Volker Sernetz, Stefan Sobotka-Grünewald and Lia Rädler from Graz have been working as film and projection artists for more than 20 years. In addition to video and film productions, they are also successful nationally and internationally with their large-format projections. OchoReSotto create light and sound installations on facades or literally allow rooms to appear in a different light. The trio also uses their projection art for permanent installations in museums and showrooms, or in combination with architecture and in public spaces.
They are the founders of ‘strictly analogue – a studio for experimental progress’ (Graz / Trieste / Tokyo) – a network for the promotion of alternative/experimental work and communication processes.
They are founders of “strictly analog – studio for experimental progress” (Graz / Trieste / Tokyo) – a network for the promotion of alternative/experimental work and communication processes.

TOPIA

The installation ‘Topia’ resembles a modern version of a cinema screen: a digital window that also has a sculptural dimension. The light installation reworks the surface as an architectural element and invents a new concept for it that moves away from the material object. To achieve this, surfaces are opened and closed, different atmospheres and moods are interwoven, and new worlds are constructed within existing ones. In this way, ‘Topia’ creates a wall of light in the real space of the Dom im Berg venue that is clearly visible but intangible, inviting the audience to imagine and explore in a very special way.

location: Dom im Berg

PLEASE NOTE:
On Saturday, 25 October 2025, the last admission is at 9:45 p.m.

Biography:
Zalán Szakács is a post-digital artist, audiovisual performer and researcher who explores media theory through the use of light, space, and sound. His conceptual approach is translated into interactive and immersive environments, creating atmospheres that challenge human perception.
In each project, Szakács explores a personal fascination of historical subjects and deconstructs them through a cultural, political and social lens. Through this research, he analyses overlooked and unconventional parallels between past and current zeitgeists.
Szakács exhibited and performed at Kunsthaus Graz, V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media and Klankvorm in Rotterdam, sound:frame in Vienna, Atlas Electronic in Marrakesh, Demo festival, CIVA – new media art festival, Espronceda in Barcelona, Dekmantel in Amsterdam and has collaborated with artists such as Children of the Light, Stefan Fraunberger, Sébastien Robert and Teresa Winter.
In 2017, Szakács graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Man and Communication. In 2019 he completed his Master’s degree at the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, in Media Design: Experimental Publishing.

Credits:
Research, concept, light composition: Zalán Szakács
Sound composition: Pandelis Diamantides
Light programming: Loden Rietveld
Technical production: Studio Den Haan, Franz Kauffmann

YOUNG MASTERS EXHIBITION

In 2025, the KLANGLICHT Young Masters Exhibition will once again take place in the side tunnels of the Schlossbergstollen as part of the festival. This year, a total of five works by young artists will be on display, most of them for the first time. With this exhibition, KLANGLICHT offers young and emerging artists and collectives the opportunity to present themselves to a wide audience, attract attention and establish new contacts for collaboration or further exhibitions.

This year’s participants are Jana Habiger, Joschua Hohenbrink, Konstantin Postl, Mattia Fiacco Mazzini, Xaver Rath, Alice Zanutti, Bensu Kaya and Indy YuQian. The media artworks of these artists range from philosophical to dramatic, and some are even interactive, and create their own uniquely voiced atmosphere in the caves of the tunnel.

curated by Jan Herman de Boer

location: Schlossbergstollen, Zugang über Schlossbergplatz

This installation is made possible with the kind support of AVL.

Jana Habiger – IN THE END
Strange scenes unfolding in a miniature version of Graz’s Clock Tower. These are scenes from the biblical apocalypse as described in the Book of Revelation. The bells of the Clock Tower, which have already rung for many reasons, now proclaim another new message: seven seals are opened, seven trumpets sounded, and seven bowls of plagues are poured out upon the world.
With ‘In the end’, Jana Habiger draws a parallel to our actual reality – a reality that seems surreal to many people due to climate change, the mass extinction of species and depletion of natural resources; as surreal as the reality in this work.

Joschua Hohenbrink – THE DRAGON’S CAVE
In his project ‘Die Drachenhöhle’ (The Dragon’s Cave), Joschua Hohenbrink tells the story of a dragon that rests deep within the Schlossberg hill. However, it does not hide itself away; rather, the hill itself is the dragon. It is embedded in the geological and cultural history of the place and remains hidden in the layers of time and nature. With growing plants that become a network of lines, which in turn form a dragon, Hohenbrink shows a cycle of transformation, life, decay and rebirth.

Konstantin Postl, Mattia Fiacco Mazzini, Xaver Rath – LET GO
Not every moment needs to be shaped. Sometimes profound changes occur when people decide not to shape the experience, but to observe it. That is the message of ‘Let go’. The installation by Konstantin Postl, Mattia Fiacco Mazzini and Xaver Rath explores the tension between control and acceptance in dreams and thus also in life. The audience can influence the dream they experience here via an interface: every touch changes it. But the more interaction there is, the more resistance the system offers. Chaos and emptiness follow, giving way to beauty only when control ends – and we simply let go.

Alice Zanutti, Bensu Kaya – THE CROSSING

Surface water that initially appears calm is moved by hidden currents. Warm white is constantly disturbed by aggressive red. And a carousel of silhouettes spins incessantly. There is no thought of calm – let alone safety – here. The audience watches from a distance. Intervention is not possible.


‘The Crossing’ by Alice Zanutti and Bensu Kaya is an installation of light and shadow that tells the story of migration: displacement, the illusion of safety, danger, death and, last but not least, the world’s passive view of humanitarian crises.

Indy YuQian – FRAGEMENTS OF IDENTITY
Fragments of Identity is an audiovisual installation that explores self-discovery between two cultures. At its heart is porcelain, which once travelled from China to the Netherlands, where it broke away from its Chinese ancestors and established itself as an independent and valuable cultural heritage alongside the development of Dutch ceramics.
Like porcelain, Indy YuQian herself came to the Netherlands from China and found herself in a culture that was often different from what she had expected. Based on this analogy, the artist’s project explores cultural life, questions traditions and celebrates identity.