"MANUFACTURA" by Studio Zweisiedlerkrebs | Cologne, Germany

Studio Zweisiedlerkrebs, Founded by Elena Wiener and Josefine Maier, Studio Zweisiedlerkrebs is a creative studio for audiovisual and interactive storytelling. Whether it's film, interactive applications, or exhibitions – their work focuses not on the how, but on the why. Through their projects, they aim to strengthen democracy and diversity, amplify queer and feminist perspectives, and make historical contexts tangible.

MANUFACTURA is an endless machine that exposes the systemic imbalance of patriarchal societies – told through the lens of Gretchen’s tragedy in Goethe’s Faust. Faust, the giving hand, and Gretchen, the receiving hand, constantly navigate the boundaries between responsibility, overwhelm, and self-sacrifice.

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"The Silent Carnival" by HYZ Studio | New York City, USA

Lois He, a filmmaker and narrative designer, and Vio Zhu, a former software engineer at Google and Apple, co-founded HYZ Studio to explore the boundaries of storytelling and experience through technology. Blending artistic direction with technical expertise, they create immersive experiences, interactive installations, live performances, and architectural projection mapping that bridge physical and virtual worlds.

Their work has been featured at SXSW Sydney, SIGGRAPH, MIT, ARTECHOUSE NYC, La MaMa Gallery, CultureHub, the GEN-AI Summit, the CICA Museum, LVMH, the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, and the New York Academy of Sciences.

As a filmmaker, Lois's films have been shown at Cannes Rendez-Vous and Tallinn Black Nights, among others, and have received awards including the Agnès Varda First-Class Prize.

"The Silent Carnival" follows a clear, linear narrative that connects the drama of Faust and Gretchen with Goethe’s real-life decisions. The red-and-black woodcut style expresses Faust’s bloody passion and moral darkness, evoking the printmaking techniques of Goethe’s era and creating a visually striking, high-contrast impact on the façade.

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"SILENT PACT" by The Fox, The Folks | Bandung, Indonesia

The Fox, The Folks is a multimedia artist collective based in Bandung, Indonesia. They specialize in visual storytelling through motion graphics and animation for projection mapping. Their work combines hand-drawn and stylized techniques to create visually distinctive pieces. Their creations have received international recognition and have been awarded prestigious prizes, such as both the Grand Prize and Audience Award at the 1Minute Projection Mapping competition in Tokyo, Japan in 2021, and the First Prize at the Schlosslichtspiele 2022 in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Their work SILENT PACT is a visual exploration of the Faust narrative. Imagery and typography are interwoven to express the complex network of emotions and motives embedded in the drama: desire, temptation, cost, obsession, guilt, exposure, paradox, and reflection.

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"Physiognomic Maze" by AOTOO | Chongqing, China

 

AOTOO, a new media art studio based in Chongqing, China, specializes in immersive projections and light art. Their work has received multiple awards, including recognition at the China Chongqing International Light Art Festival and the One Minute Projection Mapping Competition. At this year's Genius Loci Weimar, they illuminated the façade of the palace with a guest contribution from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (SFAI), the partner university of Bauhaus-Universität Weimar in Chongqing. This contribution was presented outside the official competition.

Physiognomic Maze creates an intercultural space by connecting Faust’s diabolical pact with traditional Chinese Nuo masks, exploring the boundaries of human nature. As mediators between the human and the divine, the masks—together with the pact with the devil—evoke a tension between truth and illusion.

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