Side-Acts - Genius Loci Weimar

"WE ARE MAPPING" by Ewa Maria Śmigielska, Pionty (Jakub Jezierski), Magdalena Małczyńska Umeda, and Wojtek Blecharz | Poland

WE ARE MAPPING is an artistic counterpoint to the high-tech world—a call for the analog. The result: analog mapping.

Inspired by this year’s festival theme Faust, an interactive projection is created in which the audience becomes the most important part of the creative process. Together, visual narratives emerge and intertwine with quotes from Goethe’s Faust. The Reithaus is transformed into a stage and playground for analog light projections, accompanied by an original soundscape composed by Wojtek Blecharz.

© Ewa Maria Smigielska, Genius Loci Weimar 2025

"Follow the Dragon" by Ewa Maria Śmigielska | Berlin, Germany

Follow the Dragon explores the duality of light and darkness in everyday life, inspired by this year’s Genius Loci Weimar festival theme: “Faust: Light and Shadow.” Drawing on the Chinese symbol of Yin and Yang, Ewa Maria Smigielska’s work evokes the mythical image of the dragon to investigate the perception and meaning of time and space, as well as the interplay of forces, connections, and energy flows.

© Henry Sowinski, Genius Loci Weimar 2025

Holographic Water Projection on the Ilm by Chrida | Germany

In the middle of the Ilm River in Weimar, an ephemeral installation of water, light, and motion unfolds. A powerful water pump generates a wide, elevated spray of fountains that stretches like a shimmering shield across the river’s surface. Onto this dynamic water screen, a projector casts light projections—fleeting images that constantly shift with the movement of the water.

The work harnesses the site’s natural features, transforming the river into a living projection surface for a brief moment in time. Here, technology and nature merge into an immersive experience that redefines the perception of public space—between visibility and disappearance, between control and chance.

THEATER

"Walpurgis Night" by Selina-Lucia Rauscher | Weimar, Germany

On Walpurgis Night, a mysterious celebration awakens on the Brocken. Shadows flicker between the trees—a night filled with magic and ecstasy. The open-air performance behind the historic Anna Amalia Library draws audiences into the enchantment of this night, in which Faust follows Mephisto into a world of seduction and darkness. Through music, movement, and projections, a sensuous stage experience unfolds, bringing the allure and menace of this fateful night to life. Under the open sky, sound, motion, and light merge into a one-of-a-kind experience.

Concept, direction, and costumes: Selina-Lucia Rauscher

Sound design: Ludwig Peter Müller

Dramaturgy: Carsten Weber

Featuring: ahera Hashemi, Thalia Lauer, among others

"Faust’s Pact / Prison" by Selina-Lucia Rauscher | Weimar, Germany

A contract, sealed in Faust’s study, becomes the starting point of a fateful journey: Goethe’s most famous character sells his soul in a hunger for experience—and ultimately finds himself before Gretchen, imprisoned between guilt and love. At the Sternbrücke, set against the picturesque Ilm River, the devil’s pact and the prison scene merge into a story of temptation and loss. Under the open sky, voices, sounds, and images unfold, telling of power, seduction, and ruin. An evening that brings Faust’s eternal questions into the present: What are we willing to sacrifice—and who has the power to save us?

Concept, direction, and costumes: Selina-Lucia Rauscher

Sounddesign: Ludwig Peter Müller

Dramaturgy: Carsten Weber

Featuring: Martin Esser, Krunoslav Šebrek, Carolin Wege