Traditionally, the Festival of Lights offers a competition in which the best video artists are awarded. 2023, it was with great pleasure that we presented the “Colours of Life” Award.

“Colours of Life” Award 2023 – in 3D and from a 360° perspective

The video poetry TREE OF LIFE (Spanish: Árbol de la Vida) by artist Gabriel Vallecillo Márquez showed an important element of Mexican folklore and cosmology. It symbolises the connection between humanity and the natural world and represents the cyclical nature of life, death and rebirth. The emotional and elaborate work ENGER TUNNEL by Vamos Animation is about the process and effort required for diversity to emerge. The symbol of the tunnel impressively represents the process of immigration in Germany and focuses on different ways of walking this path (together). The moving film sequences were shot especially for this artwork. DIVERCOLOUR by Momap from Spain showed the TV tower full of poetry: flowers, spring colours, birds, hands – which interlock and seem to dance. The gestures of the hands imply diversity. Every culture has its own gestures that have different meanings. LEBENSREISE by Clockwork from Poland. The television tower was filled with luminous lines. Colourful stripes pulse up and down while luminous fibres fill the inside of the tower. A journey through life. From birth, through the adventurous life, to the end. Segments of the tower rotate and show the successive phases of life. MEMORY OF LIGHT by SKG+ from China. The forest hides mysterious magic. It nurtures countless lives and holds boundless energy that can bring forth countless miracles. It breathes life into everything: Nature, flowers, earth, ocean, civilisation, flames, fantasy and crystals. THE COLOURS OF LOVE by MP-STUDIO from Bulgaria. A cheerful mapping in which love is taken with humour and funny figures wink at us.

The Berlin Cathedral is one of the greatest landmarks of our city and it is precisely this landmark that can carry a special message during the festival: diversity is inclusion. Shown was art by artists with and without disabilities. All works of art in the cathedral are characterised by strong individual artistic expression. The relief of the cathedral is both an invitation and a challenge. Each work became a skilful play of colours, shapes and dimensions. On show were MP-STUDIO (BGR), Gita Kurdpoor (D/IRN), Otto Schade (CHL/UK), Ross Ashton (UK), Daniel Margraf (DEU) and Modulux (AT). Each work shown in the Lustgarten communicates with us as viewers in a particularly intense way. All of the Dome’s light artworks pierce the veil of night without equal and illuminate the darkness.

We proudly presented Louisa Band (DEU), Lars Höllerer (DEU) and Thomas Kahlau (DEU) as the most talented mouth painters:

One of the works is titled: WINGS FOR INCLUSION. Designed by Louisa Band. It shows a woman in a wheelchair who has grown large, colourful wings that carry her towards an inclusive and colourful world of tomorrow. Several ropes and hands reach down onto the stony world to pull the remaining people onto the colourful globe that shines above her. The other two pictures show a poppy meadow by Thomas Kahlau and the cheerful colour motif FOR YOU. A FLOWER BOWDER FULL OF HOPE OF FAITH by Lars Höllerer.

Munich artist Betty Mü presented us with a unique garden of diversity. Bright flowers and blossoms, organic colours and shapes that multiply, reflect and blend harmoniously with the façade of the “Hotel de Rome”. Natural elements that break down into abstract colour spectra, flower power that flows together into surreal Maelstroms. The interplay between hand-filmed footage, abstract animations and the sensitive use of artificial intelligence results in an installation that knows how to bring the magic of nature and the idea of diversity right into the heart of Berlin. The sound collage was created by Gab Oswin. Everything is connected by the same green thread. The same thread that shapes the planet also draws the silhouette of man and gives him his form. So basically we are all hanging on the same thread that holds us and the world together. The figurative metaphor of the ever-shrinking ball of wool shows the finite nature of our natural resources. With her multi-award-winning animated film “The Green Thread”, Vanessa Cardui easily created awareness for our actions and climate protection. Returning is Pani Pawlosky from Poland, who presented diversity as a fundamental aspect of the human experience in her show. In her surreal projection, different colours and shapes come together to tell a unique story. They represent the many cultures, identities and experiences that make our world so interesting. This visual experience reminds us that diversity is like a beautiful mosaic where each piece contributes to the whole picture.

MP-STUDIO from Bulgaria presented GATE TO THE FUTURE: “The Brandenburg Gate takes us on an exciting journey through time and space, from the cradle of mankind to our bright future. An easy journey through the dimensions of culture and architecture to the threshold of knowledge. And beyond… where the eternal truth shines timelessly. Dive into the colours of life to find that we are all one!” Typru is an artist who hails from France and lives in Portugal. Her work COLOURS OF LIFE was inspired by the colours of nature that immediately surround her. Her works, which playfully take up shapes and spaces, tell of dreams of everyday life. “Between sea, earth, light and sky, the four mothers of nature take us on a journey through the colours of life. In Typru’s work, water, earth, fire and air present themselves as four different entities that coexist and represent an infinite variety of universes that form a whole, completing the cycle of life.” Sunnana Inc. from Japan. It is about HARMONY with nature, which is central to the Japanese way of thinking, about the various traditional colours that emerge from this harmony, and about the original beauty of life. The artwork addresses its effect to those who live in the midst of the current hectic world. Yoshida composed a magnificent and colourful sound piece for this event, using traditional Japanese instruments and other sounds. Kurbas Production from Ukraine with the show VIVID TONES: “The ‘gallery’ of the world includes a variety of ‘canvases’ of life that feature a carefully assembled selection of hues. The monochrome canvases in the gallery of the world are no less beautiful until they become too overwhelming and interfere with the colourful palettes of other people’s lives. So we learn to look for harmonious combinations and achieve a symphonic polyphony where every part can be heard, where every voice supports the overall unison. We never stop exploring and being inspired by our own Ukrainian culture. That’s why we use the colours, textures and patterns of ancient Ukrainian crafts and graphic design traditions in our work. We celebrate the beauty of social diversity forming a new world in coexistence, but at the same time we cannot ignore the things that prevent this formation.”

On the castle facade, the 3D mapping PERPLEXITY by RE:SORB (Germany) celebrated the poetic meeting of man, nature and the enigmatic realm of artificial intelligence. Through evocative projection art, we journey into the heart of our ancient connection with nature – a ribbon of light, air and green. This natural dance is juxtaposed with Artificial Intelligence, a being detached from these elemental needs. This luminous tableau is thought-provoking: When the boundaries between the organic and the synthetic dissolve, where do we find our place in the cosmos? RAINBOW REVERIE by Segal Media (Iran) was a captivating show that fuses light and colour into a mesmerising masterpiece. The dynamic interplay of colours and the strategic use of light elements have a harmonious effect and transport the audience into a vivid world full of glamour and liveliness.