Schlosslichtspiele 2025: The Shining Lights of Science
When the castle becomes a canvas for science
When Karlsruhe’s baroque palace is transformed into a gigantic canvas in late summer, you know that the Schlosslichtspiele are back. From 14 August to 14 September, the UNESCO City of Media Arts celebrates its globally acclaimed light festival for the eleventh time – with a program that uniquely interweaves art, science and technology.
Under the motto “The Shining Lights of Science”, this year’s edition is dedicated entirely to the 200th anniversary of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Hardly any other theme is better suited to this city, which has always stood for the spirit of research, an affinity for technology and the creative avant-garde. The approximately 170-metre-wide palace façade becomes a resonating space for artistic visions inspired by the achievements of science and at the same time pointing far beyond them.
Three award winners, three perspectives: The BBBank Award 2025
This year, the BBBank Award 2025 plays a particularly prominent role, with three equal winners for the first time. It is particularly exciting to see how different the styles of the award-winning artists are – and how each of them portrays the connection between art, science and philosophy.
With his work “Reflection in Technology”, Polish media artist Ari Dykier deliberately sets a counterpoint to the often smooth aesthetics of AI-generated visual worlds. With a digital paper-cut look and a metallic soundtrack, he creates a poetic vision that is reminiscent of historical media technology and yet looks to the future: Technology should not keep us trapped in narrow mechanisms, but lead us into an enlightened, creative tomorrow.
The artist group SKG+ from Shenzhen takes a completely different approach to the subject. Their projection “The Tao. The Flow of the Universe” combines the philosophy of Taoism with scientific-philosophical questions and creates a fascinating bridge between traditional Chinese ink painting and modern projection art.
Meanwhile, the Barcelona-based studio VPM makes the castle itself vibrate with “λ (Waves of Matters)”. Invisible waves that can be calculated in a physics laboratory are transformed into vibrating light and sound structures.
More than just a competition: the highlights beyond
But the festival offers much more than the three winning works. Mannheim artist
And when the internationally acclaimed collective Maxin10sity finally returns to Karlsruhe, the Schlosslichtspiele even leave their traditional venue: Ten years after the legendary show “300 Fragments”, they are staging “Stellar Sanctuary” at the Evangelische Stadtkirche.
Voices from the festival team: review and outlook
“The wide variety of different shows – from the existing collection as well as the new works – will take a look back at the past 10 years. New aspects such as the workshop at the ZKM or the light installation in the city church also show possibilities for the future,” explains Sebastian Schneider, Project Manager Schlosslichtspiele at KME Karlsruher Martketing und Event GmbH. “In addition to the new shows with their sometimes unusual visual worlds, I’m particularly excited about the light installation in the Stadtkirche and how Maxin10sity’s Karlsruhe fans will react. Secretly, however, I’m most looking forward to ‘Fragments of Reality’ by Alessandro Lupi – a sustainable installation with mirrors that works entirely without technology.”
Young talent, experiments, perspectives: The ZKM Summer School
The program is complemented by the ZKM Summer School, in which 15 young international artists have developed their own work in a very short space of time. Together with the specially composed soundtrack by Anton Kossjanek, it opens up new perspectives on what projection mapping can be.
A festival for everyone – and a cultural statement
“The Schlosslichtspiele Light Festival and the accompanying exhibition ‘Media art is here’ make it clear: Karlsruhe is a city of media art. It is a place where people from different backgrounds come together and share an experience. The fact that all offers are free of charge creates low-threshold access to art and culture – and at the same time gives artists from the region the opportunity to present their work to a large audience,” explains Daniela Burkhardt, Head of Project Coordination UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts.
Art meets research – in the heart of Karlsruhe
The Schlosslichtspiele 2025 thus impressively demonstrates how scientific topics can be developed not only intellectually, but also artistically. The castle becomes a resonating space for questions about sustainability, about order and chaos, about the invisible forces that determine our universe.
Hundreds of thousands of visitors will come to Karlsruhe this late summer to experience this symbiosis of art and research – and they are all united by the experience that science is not just about numbers and formulas, but also about light, sound and vision.
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Cover picture: “Reflection in Technology” by Ari Dykier: a poetic examination of historical media technology, far removed from AI-generated slickness. Photo: Schlosslichtspiele