PROJECT: „germ-(cell) F2“
YEAR: 29 of May 2009
OCCASION: NCPA May Festival 2009
LOCATION: National Centre for Performing Arts/ Beijing, China

Today, 60 years after the foundation of the People's Republic of China, Peking is no longer the closed metropolis that it once was. The process of opening up over recent years has also manifested itself in the city's architecture. One of the most impressive examples is the construction of the new Chinese National Opera House based on the design of French architect, Paul Andreu.

Paul Andreu creates "transit space" through which an endless flow of travellers pass at locations all over the world. When Paul Andreu describes his own work, he talks about paths and curves, tunnels and gangways, thoroughfares and transitions, time and silence, light and emptiness. He creates meeting places; places where people can discover themselves, each other and their environment. His architecture is a protective shell for the flow of life.

People who understand Paul Andreu's architecture will understand why it is more than just a projection surface for Sabine Kacunko's BOOTSCHAFT germ-(cell) F2 light performance. Together, they merge into a "living light sculpture" at an historical setting between the Great Hall of The People and the walls of the Forbidden City near Tiananmen Gate.

 
The skin - the patina created by the natural organic film on the Gate of Heavenly Peace - is projected at nightfall onto a giant projection surface, mounted on the National Centre for Performing Arts glass façade, and it is visible at a considerable distance. The projection shows the microscopic structure of the patina on the Gate of Heavenly Peace in real-time. The colourful microcosm of the patina taken from a piece of historical architecture with world cultural heritage status is projected in large format onto a new piece of architecture close to its traditional environment.