Opening: Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack

The work, created by the artist between 1923 and 1924, is one of the very first to combine electrical light and movement to produce light plays that exist on the border between painting, cinema, theatre and light sculpture. In this sense, HirschfeldMack’s machine comes right at the beginning of the light work genre that later became extremely popular in twentieth century art and forms an important part of the museum’s collection.

The apparatus presented at Museion is an authorised reproduction of the original that was lost in the 1930s. The exhibition has been created in close collaboration with the artist’s grandson and includes a wide range of documentation, photographs, construction plans, archive material, historic films and recent light shows created with the machine. Hirschfeld-Mack’s Lichtspiel-Apparat will also be used to inspire artists from the Alto-Adige region to create new artworks as part of an invitation-only competition promoted by the Festival Transart, Südtiroler Künstlerbund and Museion.