Canada, Vancouver April 6, 2011
at Jack Poole Plaza

Time Drifts
Outdoor - Video - Installation by Philipp Geist 2011










Canada, Vancouver April 6, 2011
at Jack Poole Plaza

Time Drifts
Outdoor - Video - Installation by Philipp Geist 2011

Berlin-based artist Philipp Geist will be developing his video installation Time Drifts for Vancouver 125 Birthday Live at Jack Poole Plaza. In Time Drifts Geist interprets the themes of space and time. He avoids using canvases and projects directly on parts of the façade surrounding the plaza, on the ground, on windows, and on fog streaming into the plaza. Words are projected onto the ground, and they are reflected into the fog. Fog is, similar to time, always in a flux, you cannot hold or keep it. The dissolving projection symbolizes the fragmentary knowledge and understanding of life in the past and present, but knowledge is also secured and preserved in the form of text, clearly visible on the concrete. The representations of history are being animated in the moment of the visitors reflections. The dissolving projection symbolizes not only the fragmentary knowledge and understanding of the life in the past, which is to be completed, but also the memory which must be saved from disappearing and dissolving. Thus, Geist develops a dialogue with the location, his artistic work and the people who are entering and leaving the plaza. The visitor himself becomes part of the projected image.

For the Vancouver installation, 30 new words will be added to the already 100 words contained in the piece. The 30 new words for the Vancouver edition of Time Drifts will be in English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Punjabi, Spanish, and in the traditional languages of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. These words have been selected by Brad Cran, Vancouver's Poet Laureate, and by the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. The existing words in the piece are in French, English and German, the artist's native tongue.

Watch a video of the "Time Drifts" Video Mapping & Light Installation by Philipp Geist at MUTEK FESTIVAL 2010 in Montreal:
Philipp Geist works internationally as a light and multi-media artist in the mediums of video, performance, photography and painting. The Berlin artist Philipp Geist (1976) showed a 4D mapping installation on the facade of the royal throne in Bangkok on the occasion of king Bhumibol's 82nd birthday in December 2009. The one-hour-show was the central part of the celebrations and was seen by 2-3 million of visitors. In 2008, during the 'Long Night of the Museums', he showed his video installation 'time fades' at the Kulturforum. In this installation Geist interprets the themes of space and time. He avoids using canvasses and projects directly on parts of the façade of the architecture and on transparent grounds like sheets of gauze and fog.In September 2007, he realized the video installation 'Time Lines' on the entire front of the Palazzo delle Espozioni in Rome at its re-opening after it had been closed for five years. The installation was opened by the mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, and was seen by approx. 20.000 visitors. In 2005, he realized the large project 'Winterzauber' ('Winter Magic') for the Lake Side Restaurant in Zurich and in 2006, he opened the Salon Noir within the context of the exhibition 'Melancholie, Genie und Wahnsinn' ('Melancholy, Genius and Insanity') in the Berlin Neuen National Galerie. Together with the symphony orchestra OBC Barcelona and the Finnish sound ensemble Pan Sonic, Geist opened in 2004 the Sonar Festival in Barcelona. His works were shown at the Dissonanze Festival in Rome, at Clubtransmediale in Berlin and at the Mutek Festival in Montreal which is renowned for new media. He has exhibited his live video performances internationally at the Central House of Artists (CHA) in Moscow, the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London, the National Gallery in Warsaw (Zacheta) and at the opening of the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.Further projects are characterized by their complexity and the integration of the location, the sound and moving images. Berlin - Kulturforum 'Time Fades' 2008

Montreal 2010 (MUTEK Festival 2010) at Place Des Festival