Competition 2026

The international competition for video mapping and architectural projections of the Genius Loci Weimar Festival took place from May to June 2026 under the theme "Democracy and Society."

Until 14 June 2026, artists from around the world were invited to submit their concepts for this year's projection sites. In total, nearly 100 submissions from 28 countries were received. An international jury selected three winning projects—one each for the façade of the House of the Weimar Republic, the Temple of Nike and Schiller's Residence.

The festival provided a total budget of €24,000 for the realization and award of the winning projects. Each of the three selected teams received a production budget of €7,000 to develop their approximately five-minute projection for the festival. During the Genius Loci Weimar Festival from 11 to 13 September 2026, the completed works will be presented at their respective locations. During the festival weekend, one of the three projects will also receive an additional award of €3,000.

The competition focused on historical awareness, an understanding of architecture, the ability to think abstractly and imaginatively, strong narrative skills and a clear engagement with the character of each site. Alongside traditional video mapping, experimental approaches and a wide range of artistic techniques were explicitly encouraged, including 3D animation, live-action and animated film, illustration, paper-cut animation and stop-motion.

We would like to thank all participating artists for their inspiring contributions, which enriched this year's competition with an impressive diversity of ideas, perspectives and artistic approaches.

Learn more about the winning artists and their projects here.