Monolake Live Modena 20232024
site-specific laser and sound performance [2023]
Monolake Live 20232024 was a site-specific performance on December 31, 2023 in Modena, Italy, celebrating the last hour of the year. A free-of-charge, open-air event with sound and laser graphics by Robert Henke, projecting on the 90m long and 17m high wall of the former Sant’Agostino hospital.
The hospital is currently under re-construction and will open in a few years as a new cultural center. The wall facing the square is covered with white scaffolding. To project on the complete surface, a total of eleven precision lasers, organised in two layers have been used. The lasers are controlled by a new software written by the artist for this project.
The laser graphics are part of an audiovisual score combining multiple new musical works into a sixty minute long performance, timed to end exactly at midnight. During the last minute of 2023, the laser graphics step by step turn into a real-time display of time, date and year, ultimately displaying the switch from 2023 to 2024 and the time from 23:59:59 to 00:00:00 as climax and end-point.
The work is a commission by NODE Festival and did attract more than 6000 people. Lasers supplied by LaserAnimation Sollinger, Berlin.
