Jury Competition 2024
Julia Shamsheieva | Audiovisual artist
Julia Shamsheieva is a Ukrainian artist who creates vivid and captivating 3D and motion art pieces, allowing her creativity to run wild. With a Bachelor of Arts and as a member of the Union of Designers in Ukraine, she works with video mapping, digital art, light installations, and AR & VR.
Her dedication has earned her the Grand Prize at the Circle of Light, 1minute Projection Mapping, and Imapp festivals. Julia's works have been featured in festivals and events all over the world, and she is always looking for ways to share her creativity with people. Letting the light in to tell a story, expanding the boundaries, and adding a different context is the principal aspiration of the artist.
She is a member of the light artist communities COLORs Creation (Japan) and Anima Lux (France).
Thorsten Bauer | www.thorsten-bauer.com
Thorsten Bauer is a creative director, media artist, entrepreneur and curator who has been working in the field of spatial media art installations since 2001. As co-founder of Urbanscreen GmbH Co Kg, he is considered one of the pioneers of projection mapping and has been honoured with numerous international awards in this field. Thorsten Bauer works primarily as an artist and curator in the freelance media art sector. In addition to his artistic work, Thorsten Bauer is involved in strategies for a sustainable digital urban culture. In this context, he advises and designs media façade projects and conceptualises digitally enhanced architectures.
Vali Chincișan | Media artist
Vali Chincișan is a multimedia artist who specializes in videomapping. He is well-known for his works that combine contemporary technology with rich cultural themes. His work pushes traditional limits, combining light, sound, and visual storytelling to create immersive experiences.
Vali Chincișan has received international acclaim and various accolades for his creative abilities. In 2023 alone, he won prizes at prominent festivals in Dublin, Tokyo, and Weimar, showcasing his capacity to connect with various audiences all over the world. His piece "Astral Pathways" earned first prize at the Dublin Winter Lights, and "Ancient Link" won first place at the Tokyo 1minute Festival. Additionally, his piece "Simetry Unveiled" was recognized as one of the top three at Genius Loci Weimar.
Throughout his career, Vali Chincișan has continually pushed the limits of videomapping. His projects frequently address ideas of connectivity and transformation, as seen in pieces such as "Life is Eryfg" and "Urban Tree," which have been acclaimed in Brazil and Spain, respectively.
Philipp Geist | Media artist
Berlin-based artist Philipp Geist works internationally in the fields of video and light installations, photography and painting. In 2013, Geist received the German Lighting Design Award in the Light Art category for his installation 'Time Drifts', which he presented at the Luminale 2012. His artworks and audiovisual performances have been exhibited internationally at various renowned festivals and art spaces. Geist's projects are characterised by their complexity, the inclusion of location, sound and moving images. In his video mapping installations, he avoids the use of screens, instead transforming various architectures into moving, painterly light sculptures that challenge the viewer's perception of two- and three-dimensionality.
Hendrik Wendler | Genius Loci Weimar, MXWendler
Hendrik Wendler studied architecture at the Bauhaus University in Weimar and founded device+context, a software company that develops the MXWendler video mapping software package. Since 2004, these media servers have been illuminating clubs, theatres and façades all over the world. In 2012, he founded the artistic festival platform Genius Loci Weimar for the young art direction of video mapping.
Lucid Collective | Media artists
Lucid collective is creating immersive illusions in different environments to evoke the phenomenon of collective lucid dreaming.
In doing so, the lucid collective opens pathways for a deeper understanding of the collective consciousness and the fabric of which dreams are made of.
Their pieces have been to be experienced in various venues such as the Video Mapping Festival in Lille, Illustratio Kiel, Visualia Festival of Lights, Dublin Winter Lights, Kiezburn and more.
In 2023 the collective won the first place of the video mapping competition at Genius Loci Festival Weimar and will be sent to the competition at Imapp later this year.
Antoine Manier | Video Mapping European Center
Antoine Manier created the non-profit organization "Rencontres Audiovisuelles" in 1998, and developed a project around new images
In 2017 he launched the Video Mapping European Center, which aims to support the development of the video mapping sector, through research, training, and creation, and organize the Video Mapping Festival and IBSIC (Image Beyond The Screen International Conférence).
Jens-Christian Wagner | Director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials
After graduating from high school, he studied Medieval and Modern History and Romance Philology at the Georg August University in Göttingen and at the Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación (UMCE) in Santiago de Chile from 1987 to 1995. He graduated as Magister Artium with a thesis on the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. In 1999, he completed his doctorate with a study entitled Verfolgungswahn und Tod zur Geschichte des KZ Mittelbau-Dora.
From 2001 to 2014, he was director of the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial. During this period, he curated numerous historical exhibitions and worked as a lecturer at the University of Göttingen for a time. Since 2010, he has represented the German federal states on the International Committee of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation in Warsaw by decision of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK).
On September 1, 2014, Wagner took over as Managing Director of the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation in Celle. Since 2017, he has been a member of a group of experts who designed a memorial on the site of the former Colonia Dignidad in Chile. Since October 2020, he has been Director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation and Professor at the Chair of “History in Media and the Public Sphere” at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena.