On the occasion of the Swiss National Exhibition Expo.02, iart, in cooperation with the group ‘Panorama2000’, realised the panorama ‘Switzerland Version 2.1′ in Jean Nouvel’s Cube: a 360° projection that was 23 meters wide and 7 meters high, it presented high density digital images in real time.

A small ferry took visitors to Jean Nouvel’s Cube in the middle of Lake Murten. On the ground floor of the three-storey pavilion, they first came across a curved 360° screen onto which a precisely choreographed succession of images was projected in an alternating rhythm: the 360° panorama ‘Switzerland Version 2.1’ that took them on a journey through Switzerland’s history, geography, tales and myths.

On the second floor a restored historic panoramic painting from the year 1894 represented the Battle of Murten in 1476. From the top floor visitors could see the real panorama of Murten’s natural surroundings.

The panorama ‘Switzerland Version 2.1′ was compiled by a group of artists from a huge stock of pictures of Switzerland. Famous, stereotypic pictures were used as well as less familiar ones and even some that were totally unknown: their own photos, media pictures and loans from other collections. The pictures were painstakingly digitalised, processed, modified and combined into a series of images that succeeded one another calmly with occasional bursts of a faster rhythm.

While the historical panorama on the second floor attempted to communicate closeness to reality at the same time as an optical illusion, the central objective of the group ‘Panorama2000’ was to dispel clichés through modifications and new juxtapositions, hence evoking new associations with the theme of Switzerland. Visitors were intended to find their own image of Switzerland again or to be able to reinvent it. With images taken from the public and the private sphere, the artists explored notions such as reality, identity, belonging and homeland.

The images, which were projected onto the 360° wall by 24 computer-controlled projectors, were repeated in a thirty minute cycle. Viewers did not have a fixed vantage point in front of the panorama. They advanced through the room along ramps arranged in the form of a double helix, moving first up and then down, without changing direction or meeting anyone. Visitors’ perspective and their distance from the panorama were therefore continuously changing.

Project description for download

Expo.02 Arteplage Murten — 360°-Projection
Temporary exhibition: 15 May to 20 October 2002

Customer
Expo.02, 6th Swiss Expo

Services iart
Concept, planning and realisation of the 360° projection

Media
360° Projection, realised by 10 projectors controlled by computers

Content
2000 photographs

Project Partners
Group Panorama2000: Ursula Freiburghaus, Christoph van den Berg, Monica Studer, Claudia Müller, Julia Müller, Andreas Reuter, Dominique Salathé, Valentin Spiess, Volker Trommsdorff, Emanuel Tschumi

Project Duration
6 months

Exhibition Area
700 m2

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The ‘Monolit’ by Jean Nouvel on the Murten Lake war reachable by boat.

The pictures continuously changed.

Rows of pictures projected onto the 360° sceen by 24 beamers.