dm award “connecting worlds” 2024

Since 2015 the SCHLOSSLICHTSPIELE Light Festival Karlsruhe inspires artists to create new ways to excite audiences. For 4 weeks, every evening in August and September, the more than 170-meter-long façade of the Karlsruhe Baroque Palace becomes a big stage for artistic contributions of projection mapping. Since 2023, the dm award connecting worlds will be rewarded to an outstanding project, that connects the digital and analog space and carries the projection mappings from the façade of the palace into the audience or towards the city center.

As a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network Karlsruhe commits itself to the sustainable development goals of the UN, for which we have the perfect partner in dm-drogerie markt as award holder, a sustainable and forward-thinking company from Karlsruhe. The open call for the dm award connecting worlds is an internationally announced award, for which artists or artist groups from all around the world can apply for. The projects submitted are to be realised as part of the SCHLOSSLICHTSPIELE Light Festival, which takes place for approx. 4 weeks every evening from dusk until approx. 11:30 p.m. On each evening several projection mappings with different contents and lengths between 3 and 15 minutes will be shown as well as sponsored and advertising clips. The project submitted for tender can be integrated into this sequence of events but can also function as a separate program item.

With the open call we are looking for innovative projects that address the connection of the digital space of the SCHLOSSLICHTSPIELE projection mappings on the façade with the analog space in front of the palace. An extension up to or including the city center is preferred. The projects to be submitted therefore consist of two elements, one digital on the façade and one analog. The analog parts of the piece are allowed to function on their own, independent of the projection (mapping) on the palace façade. The projects submitted must take place outdoors, be open to the public for free and can, but do not have to be shown for the entire duration of the SCHLOSSLICHTSPIELE Light Festival 2025. Conceivable, for instance, would be the interaction of the audience with the façade, the installation of a media artwork that refers to the palace, a complementary staging of the space in front of the palace, the combination of other art forms with projection mapping (such as concerts or performances on several days), interactive projects with public participation, the integration of new technical possibilities or the creation of a new spatial experience.