At the last edition (on 7 September 2007), over 1,000 artists from all over the world transformed the city, with poetic installations, such as that at Palazzo della Civiltà , one of the symbols of the city's EUR district.
The building hosted the Tribute to Mark Rothko in three parts; an impressive 'son et lumière' show thought up by photographer Ottavio Celestino and dedicated to the American expressionist painter. Exploiting the characteristic arches of the building as a "die", lighting designer Raffaele Cerri installed a SGM Palco 3 fixture at each window, in order to fill the interior with colour and make the outline completely visible from outside.
On a "virtual canvas" prepared like this (made up of 54 boxes), dynamic luminous compositions were programmed, inspired directly by the works of the deceased artist, who often filled his large canvases with just a few intense colours.
Between each row of arches, at the base, ten SGM Synthesis Spot 700s were used for uplighting, with their beams reaching up to the first tier of windows.
In the dark of the Roman Notte Bianca, the intense colours of the SGM fixtures danced across the facade of the building, in sync with three pieces by Mozart, crossfading from one hue into the next and creating moving shapes with exciting visual effects.The sequence began in the early evening and was repeated several times during the night, attracting an enthusiastic crowd.
(Claire Beeson)
