LUMENAURA ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: GEORGE BERLIN – RADIANCE
RADIANCE AT LUMENAURA: Connecting to Aurora’s history as the City of Lights “Radiance” is a story on the birth of light, the interplay of color, and how coming apart can bring us all together. Flow with energy from point to point along the weave of color that makes up our world as we travel from portal to portal on our journey back to the source.
Designing a story specifically for the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Museum gives Lumenaura guests a one-of-a-kind visual and musical experience on an epic scale like nothing else in the Chicago area. The architecture of the GAR will sing a breathtaking song of light that connects its past to the exciting future of Aurora with engaging animation fluidly choreographed to an energetic and hopeful soundtrack.
My studio has delighted millions with stories that move people- told through light in the world’s grandest spaces.
We’ve helped people fall in love with nature again through “Eco-nnections” a 6-part series of projection mapping epics told at BLINK Cincinnati, Tokyo Lights in Japan, and at light festivals in Denver, Florida, and Illinois from 2021-2023. We’ve shared our love of space travel for the Apollo 50th anniversary of the moon landing with a trio of stories launching at iMapp Bucharest: Winners League and traveling to Asia and America. We’ve lit up the Berlin TV Tower with a story of humanity and nature learning to work together. And even brought Frida Kahlo’s fiery creative spirit to Chicago’s own projection mapping space Art on theMart for her birthday in 2021.
The power and beauty of light, the Earth, and the interconnectedness of its nature and people is a recurring theme woven throughout all the stories we tell.
In 2020, I spent 5 months in Taiwan at the height of the pandemic, creating two colossal light sculptures designed to help an indigenous village heal from the trauma of a devastating typhoon.
As an artist showing at BLINK Cincinnati (the nation’s largest public light and art event) in 2017, 2019, 2022, and soon 2024, I’ve created projection mapping stories and immersive installations that connect people by the millions to the spaces they call home.
Helping to design the scope and feel of Lumenaura has been an absolute delight- Jenn’s vision for the city as an energetic and creative space in the biggest and smallest of spaces gave me and my team the spark of inspiration to bring adventure, curiosity, and a sense of play and exploration to everything you’ll see.
From forests that glow with the thrill of exploring an alien biosphere to tunnels and portals that bound you through magical underwater worlds and onward to the future and the past, we’ve brought our experience in designing wondrous and playful immersive places to light up the streets of Aurora in ways no one has ever seen before!
(George's projecting mapping art will be featured at the GAR Museum, 23 E. Downer Place during LUMENAURA Fest Weekend, October 11-13)
Other Events and awards
Borealis Festival of Light, Seattle WA 2018
Audience Favorite Award for Projection Mapping
iMapp Bucharest: Winners League Official Selection 2019
competing against 8 of the best projection mapping artists in the world
Berlin Festival of Lights
Future Vision Award 2021, Berlin Germany
Tokyo Lights / 1 Minute Projection Mapping Festival 2023 Japan
Official Selection (one of just 20 out of 200 global entries)
Blink Cincinnati: Projection mapping artist 2019, 2022, 2024
Blink Cincinnati: Immersive space design for Glow with the Flow 2017
Image List:
Proposed design for the Grand Army of the Republic Museum at LUMENAURA 2024
“Eco-nnections: Together” enjoyed by over 2M people at BLINK Cincinnati 2022
“Eco-nnections: Flow” enjoyed by 80k+ people at Tokyo Lights / 1 Minute Projection Mapping Festival 2023 Japan
“Moonbeams” iMapp Bucharest: Winners League 2019 Official Selection competing against 8 of the best in the world
“Evolve Love” 2021
Berlin Festival of Lights Future Vision Award 2021, Berlin Germany
Representing the United States of America
Projected on the Berlin TV Tower
“Frida Kahlo: Timeless” shown in 2021 in Chicago at Art on theMart- the world’s largest permanent digital display at over 2.5 acres
8x8x3 foot commissioned light sculpture in Laiji Village, Taiwan ROC
18x18x36 foot commissioned light sculpture in Laiji Village, Taiwan ROC
“Mountain Majesty” a 15 minute, 30x60 foot permanent public art projection mapping, designed in 2022 for a mural in downtown Colorado Springs by artist El Mac
*Images courtesy of George Berlin and respective festival organizers