RE.LIGHT, Regensburg, 12.–22.3.2026
The biannual light art festival’s first edition in 2024 was a very good start, and 2026 edition, again curated by Nika Perne, shows what might be the direction I’m hoping RE.LIGHT will take.
 |
| Regular people of Regensburg Katja Heitmann: Perpetuum |
Simplicity and other great ideas
Many of my favourite artworks of the festival had a clear and simple idea, realised with flashy technical stuff. Anyhow, the flashy stuff was used as a fitting and well considered material in service of the idea, not a show-off in its own right. In cases like these, the temptation to add a snazzy gimmick to the artwork just because you can, is massive. My highest respect for these artists that had the integrity not to do so.
I’ve seen Margareta Hesse’s No Barrier several times and it keeps bringing me immense joy, especially the fence-y part of it. A barrier that disappears as soon as you dare to walk through it – such an ultimately simple and impressive idea. Looks good, too. It's also interactivity on a very rudimentary level; just walking is enough. However, the sharp red laser lines in the haze do look so solid that it required some bravery from the audience to cross those lines.
Simplicity was the strength of Alessandro Lupi’s Antiego, too. The mirror that doesn’t show your face was, a tad ironically, the selfie hit of the festival. The artwork created a very specific anxiety of not seeing one’s face where it should be, while everyone else was visible just fine. A very specific and condensed form of FOMO, which after a while, though, became quite liberating.
Katja Heitmann’s Perpetuum has a simple idea, too, a collection of people’s movements, but the implementation was more multifaceted. The well-orchestrated imagery was projected on walls, presented on fancy transparent screens, projecting both the audiences shadows and filmed material. I especially appreciated the unapologetic and unshocking everydayness of the people appearing in the videos.
 |
| Will the laser slice them? Margareta Hesse: No barrier |
 |
| I lost myself, which is nice Alessandro Lupi: Antiego |
 |
| People in layers Katja Heitmann: Perpetuum |
Distracted focus on my part
The main point about Sebastian Kite’s Inner Time for me was the light it shed on its surroundings, sweeping the courtyard of Thon-Dittmer-Palais, and how the audience reacted to it. Which was by standing still, staring at and enjoying the brightness. And while doing so, forming a mesmerizing shadow play on the walls and ground around them. There was this certain meta level in the artwork, watching people watching the artwork, thus becoming a part of it. The whole hoo-ha of the machinery rotating the light, looking like a movie set from Dune going Mad Max, just felt a tad unnecessary, even though I do realise that was the thing I was supposed to look at.
Basically, I hated cabosanroque & Studio Animal’s Trànsit. I did like the setting, a matrix of traffic lights, and expected something Totally New. Alas, it was mathematical flickering all over again, although with unexpected device. Headache in the form of light. Still, I’m so, so happy to see artworks that are not meant to just please the audience (mind you, there were many people who did enjoy the piece). This is exactly a kind of risk that festivals should be taking, instead of playing it nice and safe to the extreme.
 |
| Nice shadows, eh? Sebastian Kite: Inner Time |
 |
| A traffic police's nightmare cabosanroque & Studio Animal: Trànsit |
A three course mapping meal
The choice of projection mapping pieces in the festival was almost a pedagogical one, presenting three quite different artworks. They all had very different approaches to their canvasses: serving, commenting and dominating.
Metatecture obviously had the architecture as the starting point, which is often case when it comes to projection mapping. I’m not really sure what to think of the voluntary servitude to architecture that so, so many mappers have lately expressed to me, but Daniel Rossa is a good servant, doting on the details of the façade, and caressing it with colour blocks of a most frugal graphic design style. There were the mandatory tiles popping out of the façade sequence, which always hurts me a little, but those were to be expected.
Liudmila Siewerski’s Zeitrisse was one of the bold moves of the festival. Let’s start with what is not there. There is no rush, no horror vacui nor material for ten artworks squeezed in one. Instead, Siewerski’s imagery is peaceful, patient and breathing. Her approach to architecture is one of a researcher’s. In addition to bringing out the shapes of Neupfarrkirche today, the artwork spans centuries and the whole city of Regensburg in form of archival images.
I would have said that projecting on leafless trees is a huge mistake, but Javier Riera’s The Luminous Grove proved me oh so very wrong. The bare trees became a mesh instead of a solid surface, making the projection appear on layers, and making its black more of a void than just a lack of colour. For a semi abstract black and white geometric material Riera used, this was a spot on combination, making the masses of light move, appear and disappear like choreographed ghosts. Mesmerising and beautiful!
 |
| The facade crumbles, as one does Daniel Rossa: Metatecture |
 |
| A breeze of light and a brave moment of near-emptiness Liudmila Siewerski: Zeitrisse |
 |
| Geometry meets nature Javier Riera: The Luminous Grove |
Women not doing cute stuff
You know how flowers have been a suggested subject for female artists throughout the Western art history (if women are mentioned in the first place)? Well, Nika Erjavec’s Transmitted was quite flowery, yes, but not cute at all. The trembling twigs unsynchronised with the light flickering in lightning speed, made one see colours like in a broken TV. Quite a punk approach to flowers. Much appreciated.
Vanessa Hafenbrädl’s No Flag, with speaking female heads projected on flags, was as political as it gets. Even if I didn’t understand the German words, I could tell we are talking feminism now. The combination of determined women projected on flags under the mercy of wind was interesting indeed.
And then some beauty of dysfunction. Slabs of fluorescent tubes flickered like fluorescents do in movies, right before something horrible happens, which gave Livia Ribichini’s Sagittarius A a somewhat ominous aura to the artwork. A very in your face piece, not giving a damn about prettiness.
 |
| A new kind of a Twiggy Nika Erjavec: Transmitted |
 |
| Talking in the air Vanessa Hafenbrädl: No Flag |
 |
Nothing horrible happened, I'm afraid Livia Ribichini: Sagittarius A |
More to hate, pretty please
Not all the artworks in the festival were specifically rough, political or straightforward, but there were many enough to see a pattern. And it is exactly what we need: an edgy punk light festival, and RE.LIGHT could be just that.
I sure hope I’ll find more artworks to hate in the next edition!
