IPC Potential Newsletter

JULY 2024

The International Panorama Council is a non-government and not for profit association, subject to Swiss Law

International Panoramic Council

Mission Statement

The International Panorama Council (IPC) is the international organization of panorama specialists committed to supporting the heritage and conservation of the few existing panoramas dating from the 19th and early 20th century, and to sharing knowledge and

Awareness of the panorama as a medium, including its current relevance and development. We promote professional trusteeship and stimulate worldwide research and conversation on panoramas, historic and modern. IPC is active in the fields of restoration, research, financing, exhibiting and marketing of panoramas. Our interests also extend to the wider field of panoramic media, including nineteenth-century derivatives of the panorama such as the moving panorama and the diorama as well as related historic and contemporary media including photography, film, video, print media, games, and virtual reality.

Throughout its efforts, the IPC strives to connect the past, present and future of the panorama phenomenon worldwide. The word “panorama” is common in modern language. However, the term was originally coined in the 18th century for an extraordinary visual spectacle. A panorama (or a cyclorama as it is called in some parts of the world) is a purpose-built structure that contains a large 360-degree painting, creating an illusion of standing in the middle of a place and/ or event. Natural lighting from a concealed source adds to the virtual experience. As such, a panorama is more than a painting; it is a hybrid construct that synthesizes painting, architecture, and lighting, often also incorporates sculpture (as in a faux terrain) and print media (e.g. an orientation plan).

The International Panorama Council is a nongovernmental and not-for-profit association subject to Swiss law.

Painted Panoramas: Recognition by U nesco Programme

“Memory of the World”

2023 to 2026

The IPC pursues the valorization of the painted panorama’s heritage as one of its mission and purpose.

The organization regroups heritage panorama owners or custodians worldwide and therefore is entitled to apply for the recognition of the panoramas as a documentary heritage by the Unesco program Memory of the World

The MoW Programme was established in 1992 with the aim of facilitating the preservation of the world’s past, present, and future documentary heritage, assisting universal access to documentary heritage, and increasing awareness worldwide of the existence and significance of documentary heritage and thereby foster dialogue and mutual understanding between people and cultures.

The application preparation is a bottom-up process which takes time, commitment, and resources. A project for the application has been presented at the IPC General Assembly in 2023, which named a commission to steer the project.

2023 Presentation of the project

2024 IPC member and non-member survey

2024 IPC conference with scientific exchange on the topic

2024 Constitution of national groups based on eligibility criteria

2025 Preparation of national applications

2026 Submission of the application

The operational committee of this IPC commission is composed by Prof. Sarah Kenderdine (Laboratory for Experimental Museology, EPFL), Dominique Hanson (IPC Treasurer, former Director of the Army Museum of Brussels), and Dr. Daniel Jaquet (Laboratory for Experimental Museology, EPFL and Council member of the Foundation for the Panorama of the Battle of Murten).

Updates based on the annual reports presented at the IPC General Assemblies will be published on this page (next: October 2024).

Corona Variations

David Richard Gallery, New York, United States

February 14 th to March 14 th , 2024

Suzanne Wray

I recently attended the Artists Reception for Sanford Wurmfeld’s Corona Variations at the David Richard Gallery in New York. This solo exhibition presented 25 canvases conceived and painted during the pandemic from 2020 to 2023.

The current exhibition consists of works using the grids and color variations for which the artist is known, with this new series dividing the composition into halves, vertically or horizontally. The way in which squares of color are placed draws the eye of the viewer along, almost giving the illusion that the painting’s surface is in motion.

The gallery’s press release describes the largest of these new works as a “panoramic full spectrum centerpiece...measuring 72 x 144 inches.” Although described as “panoramic,” it is not a circular painting. But Wurmfeld has painted circular and elliptical “cycloramas” in the past. The catalog for his Cyclorama 2000 at the Talbot Rice Gallery at the

University of Edinburgh in 2004 contains an essay in which Wurmfeld describes the inspiration for his first abstract panorama: a visit to the Panorama Mesdag in The Hague.

I experienced the artist’s E-Cyclorama years ago: an amazing experience, for the spectator, is surrounded by color, with some rows appearing to rotate quickly, others more slowly.

At the reception, I was able to speak to Sandy for a few moments, reminding him of my name and IPC membership, and conveying the greetings of Gabriele Koller as well, who wished that she could have been present.

Sandy told me that he has drawn up plans for another cyclorama that he hopes to paint; it would be his fourth such work. Hopefully, we will hear more of this in a future issue of the IPC newsletter.

For information on the current exhibition, Corona Variations

Images of Wurmfeld’s cycloramas can be seen at www.sanfordwurmfeld.com

Thalassa, Thalassa! The Imagery of the Sea

October 4 th 2024 to January 12 th , 2025

Lisa Stone Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland

Attention International Panorama Council 2024 conference attendees: The exhibition Thalassa, Thalassa! The Imagery of the Sea will be on view at the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts Lausanne, from October 4th to January 12th, 2025. The opening reception is scheduled for October 3, 2024, 6:00 p.m., aligning with the IPC conference in Lausanne, October 2 – 4, 2024. The exhibition will include a major work, The Baden Baden Satellite Reef from the Crochet Coral Reef project by Margaret Wertheim and Christine Wertheim.

This vast immersive woolly environment is what the sisters call “the Sistine Chapel crochet reefs” and is the largest of more than 50 community-made crochet reefs that have been created around the world.

Comprising over 40,000 coral pieces by 4,000 contributors across the German-speaking world, The Baden Baden Satellite Ree f was produced in conjunction with a project retrospective at Museum Frieder Burda. “At once a monumental work of feminine fiber art and a mathematically generated synthetic ecology,” the Crochet Reef endeavor marshals citizencreativity to produce astonishing visual, conceptual, and panoramic seascapes out of yarn and other fibers. This will be a special treat for IPC conference attendees while in Lausanne.

Renewed Interest in Reviving Innsbruck’s Original Rotunda Building

Innsbruck, Austria

April 2024

Jean-Claude Brunner

In Innsbruck, Austria, the Tirol panorama painting of the 1809 Begisel battle was separated from its original rotunda in 2010 (under protest from IPC and preservationists). The Tirol panorama reopened in its new location on Bergisel Hill overlooking the city in 2011. Although proposals for the reuse of the rotunda were collected at that time, progress stalled and the rotunda remained empty for a decade. University of Edinburgh in 2004 contains an essay in which Wurmfeld describes the inspiration for his first abstract panorama: a visit to the Panorama Mesdag in The Hague.

At the end of last December, the State of Tirol finally approached the city of Innsbruck in order to gift the rotunda to the city. Without clarifying the financial impact of such a transfer in ownership, the city did not accept the gift - yet. After Innsbruck’s municipal elections in April 2024, it is likely that the involved parties come to a positive agreement about the rotunda’s future use.

Panorama of Congo: Unrolling the Past with Virtual Reality

National Museum of Natural History and Science, Lisbon, Portugal

February 24 th to June 16 th , 2024

The exhibition Panorama of Congo: Unrolling the Past with Virtual Reality opened on February 24 at the National Museum of Natural History and Science in Lisbon. This exhibition stems from the research project CONGO VR (FilmEU RIT ) coordinated by Victor Flores (Lusófona University) and Leen Engelen (LUCA School of Arts) and focused on the 1913 Panorama of Congo by Alfred Bastien and Paul Mathieu, currently owned by the War Heritage Institute in Belgium.

The exhibition begins by immersing the visitor in a Congolese forest of shadows that will lead them to an installation with a photographic reproduction of the Panorama of Congo and a disquieting soundscape that questions the propagandistic nature of this image. Secondly, the exhibition offers a reinterpretation of this monumental painting (1610 m2) through two Virtual Reality experiences. The first experience recalls the historical context of this colonial propaganda and the preservation issues of such colonial heritage. The second experience showcases artistic interventions in the Panorama by the Congolese artists Deogracias Kihalu, Castélie Yalombo, Eléonor Hellio and Michel Ekeba (Kongo Astronauts), Hadassa Ngamba and Lukah Katangila. The visit concludes with a screening of a short documentary film by Érica Faleiro Rodrigues on the decolonial issues raised by this research project.

The CONGO VR project has been presented at the IPC Conference from its outset (Luxembourg, 2022; Iowa, 2023) and has benefitted from the valuable expertise and suggestions provided by its members. Such interaction and knowledge transfer will also be the goal of the upcoming FilmEU DOCTUS seminar (Lusófona University, March 2122) where some Panorama researchers, such as Gabriele Koller, as well as artists such as Yadegar Asisi and Christl Lidl will present their work to the PhD students of eight European high education institutions. This seminar, titled Media Arts: Back & Forth, also includes a guided tour of the Panorama of Congo exhibition.

The exhibition will be on show in Lisbon until 16 June 2024.

COAL + ICE

David Richard Gallery, New York, United States

February 14 th to March 14 th , 2024

Suzanne Wray

Described as “an immersive photography and video exhibition that brings together the work of over 30 photographers and artists from around the world to visualize the causes and consequences of the climate crisis and foreground creative solutions,” this exhibition at Asia Society in New York City aims to raise awareness of climate change by visualizing the human consequences. First presented in Beijing in 2011, the exhibition has traveled across China, and has been shown in Paris, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Displayed on two floors of Asia Society, the immersive effect of COAL + ICE is created mostly by projecting video on to large screens.

Submerged Portraits, includes large photographs and several large screens showing video of people from many countries wading or boating through floodwaters (often with some of their belongings), or simply immersed in high water, with day changing to night and back again.

Another area holds photographs showing the effects of cyclones: one shows what appear to be parts of buildings flying over a house with a “Beware of Dog” sign on its fence; the “dog” would seem to be a lesser threat than a cyclone. Video of an actual cyclone, taken for television news, is projected.

Coal and Ice share a large area: archival silent film footage of a coal-mining town is juxtaposed with video showing huge machinery extracting coal and coal being transported by rail and ship. Portraits of coal miners in China are displayed next to photographs showing their working conditions.

Ice dominates the other half of this area, with timelapse video showing the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas, and an island gradually disappearing, being destroyed by rising sea levels.

According to the Asia House brochure, the exhibition “aims not to scare, but to mobilize.” Related programs include discussions, films, book talks, and concerts.

Painted circular panoramas of battles immersed the viewer in the scene, gave the sense of “being there.” COAL + ICE immerses the viewer in other ways, and in another battle-this one for the planet we all occupy-and reminds us that we must take action, for we do not want to be part of the “there” represented in many of the images displayed.

For information on the current exhibition, Opening Night

A Tribute to Impressionism: New Panorama “The Cathedral of Monet”

Panometer Leipzig, Germany

March 16 th , 2024

This is the German premiere for Yadegar Asisi’s panorama Cathedral of Monet–Freedom of Painting. With this work, Yadegar Asisi has created a 360° painting of colour and light in the style of Impressionism. He thus dedicates himself to one of the most important art epochs of our time and provides an insight into his own 30-year period of painterly creativity. The panorama has been on display at the Panometer in Leipzig since March 16th, 2024.

Yadegar Asisi is breaking new artistic ground: for the first time, a panorama has been painted entirely in oil on canvas before being digitally enlarged and printed on fabric. The work, which was then staged on a 3,500 square metre scale, takes us back to the end of the 19th century in the northern French city of Rouen. From several levels of the 15-metre-high visitor tower, visitors are immersed in an experience of vivid brushstrokes and a unique interplay of colour and light.

The scenery opens up as if you were standing on Rouen’s cathedral square in 1894: the evening sun almost completely illuminates the façade of NotreDame de Rouen Cathedral in the centre, casting a warm orange-red light on the forecourt and the houses already in the shade. A multifaceted interplay of extraordinary colour nuances, shades and incidences of light pervades the entire surroundings. Asisi immortalizes famous painters and contemporaries such as Vincent van Gogh, Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet on the forecourt of the cathedral.

The starting point for the work is a 6 x 2 metre canvas on which Yadegar Asisi has painterly reconstructed the cathedral with its surrounding square and houses. The basis was a famous series of paintings by Claude Monet from 1892 - 1894, who captured the cathedral in Rouen several times under a wide variety of lighting conditions. The mood of the complex lighting situations inspired Asisi to depict this place and the most important players in the art world of the time.

In the accompanying exhibition with numerous works by Asisi, the artist explores the tension between painting, craftsmanship, and digitalization, but above all his experience of the senses and the world. He reflects on the interplay between art and technology in the context of social progress: just as Impressionism marked the beginning of an era that Asisi describes as the “liberation of painting”, developments today are leading to the “freedom of painting”. The completely free development of motifs, themes, painting techniques, and technologies such as artificial intelligence are expanding the spectrum and expressive possibilities of visual artists right up to the present day.

The first digital collection by Yadegar Asisi, which is dedicated to the pioneers of modern painting, will also be published as part of the exhibition. To mark the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition, seven artists from this era will be immortalized as NFTs in the form of six digital works based on the original painting by Yadegar Asisi.

Panoramas by Yadegar Asisi have been on display in the historic gasometer since 2003. This is where the renaissance of panoramas began. In addition to Leipzig, the artist’s panoramas can also be seen in Berlin, Dresden, Lutherstadt Wittenberg, and Pforzheim. Further locations in Vienna and Constance are planned.

About the artist and his studio:

Yadegar Asisi was born in Vienna in 1955, studied architecture at the Technical University of Dresden and painting at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, where he graduated as a master’s student of Klaus Fußmann. Since 2003, the Berlin artist has been creating monumental 360° panoramas measuring up to 3,500 square metres in circular buildings the height of a house. In addition to his own buildings in Leipzig and Berlin, the artist’s panoramas are also shown at other partner locations in Dresden, Pforzheim, and Lutherstadt Wittenberg.

Yadegar Asisi is particularly interested in inaccessible natural spaces, city views with their insights into structures and societies as well as moments in contemporary history. With the help of his team of architects and digital artists for 3D and image processing, Asisi creates his panoramic works in years of detailed work as high-resolution digital paintings, which are created from thousands and thousands of photographs, drawings, sketches, and paintings. During photo shoots with extras, scene images are created which Asisi incorporates into his panoramic work. The panorama is then printed on over 30 metres of fabric and installed in the panorama buildings.