14. Hotel de Rome & Behren Palais

Illuminos | UK

Follow the Ladybird, Glückskäfer, or Lovebug – a symbol of love, luck and fortune, spreading its power through their journeys. In our concept the iridescent wings of the love bug bring their magic to Berlin’s architecture, conjuring peacock, octopus, tiger, chameleon, transforming their patterns from black and white to rich colours of the rainbow, in a celebration of our love for the colourful natural world.

Magic Innovations | Ukraine

At night, the building transforms into a dreamscape. Through its windows, we enter the inner world of a small toy rabbit. A place where reality no longer follows the rules of logic. A submerged kingdom of machines becomes a metaphor for memory, endless stone rabbits represent different versions of the self, and a shifting labyrinth reflects our fears and the search for a way out. As the dream unfolds, the rabbit stops being just a character and becomes the creator of his own world – bringing ancient machines to life and turning the impossible into reality. But every dream has its fears. A serpent emerges from the forest, forcing him to run until he reaches the vastness of space. There, he meets an astronaut and behind the helmet is his own face. The journey was never outward. It was always inward. Slowly, the dream folds back into the building, until everything disappears into one small glowing window: the rabbit, peacefully asleep. This is a story about imagination as our inner universe – a place where memory, fear, fantasy, and identity become one. Outside: a building. Inside: an entire universe.

Betty Mü | Germany

Shifting Garden describes a state of constant transformation—a living space where the organic turns into color, movement, and perception. Plants and blossoms dissolve from their familiar shapes, transforming into pulsating visual fragments. Layers overlap and intertwine, colors intensify, continuously opening up new visual realms. In the interplay of organic structures and abstract color spaces, an ongoing process of growth, decay, and renewal emerges. Boundaries become permeable. Forms interact, shift their meaning, and merge into ever-new constellations. As part of this year’s Festival of Lights under the motto “Colours of Love,” Betty Mü’s Shifting Garden becomes a symbol of connection, change, and transformation. Here, the garden is not conceived as a static place, but as a living organism that constantly reshapes itself and sets its surroundings in motion. Shifting Garden is the second part of the artwork Liquid Garden, which was previously showcased on the facade of the Hotel de Rome during the 2023 Festival of Lights.