Light art installation Bridge to the stars! Light Art by Andreas Juergens
A light art project to think about, which was supposed to symbolically connect the stars with the earth.
A great Light art action that caused a lot of attention in the district of Deggendorf and the local press. With several partly full-page articles and even a small photo competition of the PNP (Passauer Neue Presse), I achieved my goal of getting my fellow human beings to think differently. In this project, which ran in February 2018 over almost 3 weeks, only a simple green laser beam was directed from the Observatory Winzer as a bridge of light over the Danube to the beautiful Asambasilika in Altenmarkt / Osterhofen, 6 km away. The beam thus illuminated the dark winter time and made many curious. At that time there was a constant coming and going at the observatory, everyone wanted to find out the reason for this extraordinary show in the night sky.
My thoughts that I have made to myself are attached here to read again afterwards. But the most important thing for me was that everyone starts to think about what the whole do up in the sky is supposed to be.
Thoughts on Light Art Bridge to the Stars.
Thoughts about the project.
Where are we? Where am I? In Winzer or Osterhofen, this could be the simple answer. That is probably true, when I see a green beam of light in the sky that doesn´t seem to fit into my everyday life at all. A green cut in the night that wants to forward the light of the stars. Caught in a clear night at the Sternenwarte Winzer. As a bridge of light towards a place of reflecting and contemplativeness. A place that is rushing through space at the speed of millions of kilometers per hour on a small dust fragment called earth together with our sun and other planets. An important thought, where am I really? I am not only here, where I stand, butr also very real within a nutshell, in transit through a cold and hostile ocean of infiniteness. Luckily I realize that I am not alone - that should calm myself. Just deenergize and make myself clear how small and unimportant we are on a cosmic scale - then my own problems probably appear less huge. Be it the quarrel with a neighbour, acolleague or a friend, things lose its importance and you don´t take yourself too seriously anymore. Actually we all sit in a nutshell, this is not only a saying, but clear scientific reality. Would we really take in this thought, myself included, we probably had a real chance for achieving world peace. Sadly, the fighting in between the boat passengers is just about to break out greatly. Who e.g. should include all the people who are urging to get upstairs from the bottom decks because of the stench downstrairs? Or those from cabin 1980 - they have simply more bananas then we here in cabin 2018. Surely, there is no need for a long wait, before the first are starting to pull out their knives again to put an end to the injustice. Or until someone on the lower decks finally has enough and can´t bear the stench anymore - and decides to blow a big hole in the walls of our beautiful ship? Then, all the bananas in cabin 1980 aren´t worth anything anymore and in some other cabins, the song "we are great again" will silence quickly.
Peace is not for free! Instead, it relies on giving those having less a part of the cake. At least that much, so everyone can live in peace and dignity. Of course, this cannot happen from one day to the next, because also me I don´t want to give up too many of my valuables - but it has to happen. Nationalism is nothing else than egoism on a national scale, inevitably leading to war and suffering. Or does anyone know a case where two egoists were imprisoned in a cell and survived for a long period of time?
My light bridge is a symbol for the fact that the peace we are so proud of really is very small and fragile. The beam is lighting only a very narrow strip of the darkness, as our peace lasts only for rediculously short 73 years. Before, there was a timespan of 1700 years, where never more than a few decades people lived in peace.
The beam should light up every day´s life, even if the beam becomes part of every day´s life itself after a few days. So should every spectator of the beam think about himself and hopefully discover new views. The light bridge transmits the light of the stars into our danube valley. . Light, that was underway for millions of years - many of the stars we still can see in the meantime don´t exist anymore because of a supernova for example. Surely, space still holds a lot of secrets. Everybody interested can go on a discovery trip together ewwith the team of the Sternwarte Winzer. The planetarium is open every friday even in case of bad weather conditions.
The laser beam is ending at the beautiful Asam Basilika in Altenmarkt. the baroque church is a symbiol of mediation and calmness, where people since its construction come together seeking for a connection to heaven. Special thanks to priest Emanuel Hartmann for his support and help. Very special thanks to mayor Jürgen Roith and the community of Osterhofen and also the team of Sternwarte Winzer, who all helped to make this project happen.