“In the beginning was the word”: enthusiastic projection in the Oberammergau parish church

Created: 06/21/2022, 09:00

By: Margot Schäfer

The projection event in an endless loop transforms the church space.

© Meggy Schaefer

Oberammergau – "Impressive .

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.", "The church interior is unrecognizable", "It leaves you speechless, is indescribable .

.

.

“, was the verdict of guests who attended the official presentation of the light installation in the Oberammergau parish church on the eve of Ascension Day.

Anyone who experiences the light-text installation in Peter and Paul late in the evening will take away great impressions, will get the message of the Passion Play that is currently taking place in a concentrated form and can look at an unusual work of art the size of a church room.

You can't get enough of the 16-minute projection event, which starts again and again in an endless loop and in which any acoustics were deliberately avoided.

"I watched it 22 times in a row on the first day and kept discovering new things," Dean and Pastor Thomas Gröner shared his impressions during the presentation.

In addition to interested citizens and tourists, Mayor Andreas Rödl, plant manager Walter Rutz, other local politicians and members of the parish council and church administration also came.

The pastor invited the guests to leave their seats and walk through the room, "because the perspective changes again at each location".

Sometimes the writing is like a curtain of light, stands still for a moment, then the letters move, run in different directions, get faster, smaller, bigger or are focused on one of the altars or the organ gallery.

The word "FORGIVENESS" is projected hundreds of times and immovably into the dome as a circular halo.

A haven of peace.

After all, the terms forgiveness, despair and trust stand for three selected sentences from Jesus' "Seven Last Words on the Cross": "Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing", "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? ’, ‘Father, into your hands I put my spirit.’

The artists Detlef Hartung and Georg Trenz only worked with white light, i.e. with two video projectors and two LED projectors, “to combine the drama of this statement with the baroque, exuberant church architecture and iconography of St. Peter and Paul to reach".

Trenz was happy to answer questions at the beginning and later at the champagne reception in the vicarage.

"I really enjoy talking about our project," he explained.

The well-known artists are in demand internationally and have worked in Frankfurt, Cologne, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Adelaide, Halifax and now in Oberammergau.

Passion makes it possible, because both are always happy to take on commissions for church interiors such as those for Freising Cathedral.

"That's not possible here, was my intention when I entered the parish church for the first time in 2018," remembers Trenz.

But at some point he and his partner, with whom he has been working for 25 years, knew how it could work, they saw something special.

Corona intervened - as with so many things - the first concept with the focus on glories, i.e. coronas, was discarded and a new one with the basic idea 'In the beginning was the word' was created.

In addition to forgiveness, desperation and trust, there is also the projection on the church tower: the ambiguous message "WUNDENOVERWUNDEN".

Take a look for yourself!

Until October 2, 2022, the light-text installation can be seen daily in the Oberammergau parish church from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on non-game days and until 11:30 p.m. on game days.

And you really shouldn't miss it.