Claypaky Shines at Swarovski Crystal Worlds' Festival of Light

	Eighty Claypaky Mythos2 and Supersharpy2 were used at the Swarovski Crystal Festival of Light event, Austria. Photo: Sandra Somerkamp

Lighting designer Björn Hermann employed 60 Claypaky Mythos2 and 20 Claypaky Supersharpy2 to deliver two titanic light sculptures as part of global crystal producer Swarovski's Festival of Light, hosted at their seven-hectare fantasy park Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal Worlds) in Wattens, Austria.

Lead creative agency for Festival of Light was Berlin-based international creative production company StudioNOW, who originated the project's concept. StudioNOW worked alongside Hermann and German art collective phase7 to create an adventure park of sound and light that included the two colossal light sculptures crafted by the beams of Claypaky's award-winning long-throw arc lamps. The Mythos2 and Supersharpy2 fixtures were supplied to the event by German event production and rental specialist satis&fy.

"The inspiration for the project came from the reflections in Swarovski's world-famous crystals, which gave us the idea of transforming the whole area of Swarovski Crystal Worlds into an enormous light crystal," explains Sven Sören Beyer, the founder and artistic director of phase7. "A huge light sculpture encompasses the whole park, uniting the individual elements into a single artwork that makes Swarovski Crystal Worlds shine in a new light."

Creating this overarching light element were 60 of the multi-award-winning Mythos2. The Mythos2 features a new and reliable Osram Sirius HRI 440W lamp, which ensures the extraordinary performances that have made the success of Mythos worldwide. The fixture also features a new super-smooth dimming upgrade, which makes the product suitable for the most demanding applications.

Hermann rigged the fixtures along the outer ridges of the Swarovski Crystal Worlds park, spanning the back line of the famous Crystal Cloud and Mirror Pool area. The Mythos2's powerful beams were programmed to pitch a series of curves, lines, and grids in the vast air-space above the park; the designs emulating the refractive nature of light through crystal.

"The central concept of this new event is the magic of crystal, which only fully reveals its alluring beauty in a sparkling interplay with light," explains Stefan Isser, managing director of D. Swarovski Tourism Services GmbH. "It is only by combining the magic of these two phenomena that so many great and small moments of wonder can be created."

As part of the Festival of Light's "Fantasy in Precision" installation, one of four major installations at the festival, Hermann rigged 20 Supersharpy2 fixtures to the roof of the four-story Swarovski Crystal Worlds' playtower. The outdoor installation was designed to extend the faceted crystal patterns of the tower's architecture into the sky above.

Hermann utilized the Supersharpy2's intensely bright beam (over three times brighter than its famous cousin the Sharpy), 0- to 4-degree beam angle and large 170mm diameter front lens to create multi-layered webs of light of varying brightness, color, and width. The fixture's super-fast pan and tilt (angle -- pan of 540-derees and tilt of 244-degrees) ensured the beams travelled in clean and precise movements.

The Festival of Light ran from January 30 to February 19, 2017. The festival hosted a number of unique installations that lit up after sunset. The four major light installations were; "Fantasy in Precision;" "Aura," an interactive display based on projection, animation, and color play; "Red loves Blue," an interplay of red and blue light across the park's famous Mirror Pool and Crystal Cloud; and "Disorientation," where a sea of white light and fog emerged from the Mirror Pool and immersed and delighted audiences.

Claypaky's official distributor for Austria is Lightpower Austria, based in Traun.