ZENIT W300 illuminates the Goetheanum

Cameo keeps vigil

On New Year's Eve in 1922/23, the sky over Dornach in Switzerland lit up. The reason was not fireworks, however, but the burning Goetheanum building – the seat of the Anthroposophical Society. Exactly 100 years later – on New Year's Eve 2022/23 – the operators organised a vigil at the new Goetheanum building to commemorate the night of the fire. In addition to lectures, exhibitions, and a New Year's concert, 50 Cameo ZENIT W300s bathed the massive concrete building with its organic architecture in warm white light from the outside.

The Goetheanum – named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – is an extraordinary building in every respect. Resembling a monumental bunker from the outside, the massive walls inside house both the General Anthroposophical Society, the School of Spiritual Science, and a festival theatre, including a theatre with around 1,000 seats.

For the light installation, the Goetheanum rented the IP65-capable LED outdoor washlights from the German full-service provider SimCo, from Efringen-Kirchen near the Swiss border. The choice of the Cameo spotlights was almost self-evident for Ilmarin Fradley, lighting designer at the Goetheanum. As early as 2020, the Goetheanum invested in Cameo OPUS SP5 FC Profile Moving Heads for a Faust production, after the premiere of the unabridged Faust took place here in 1938.

Fradley and his team placed the ZENIT W300s on the ground in front of the foundation walls of the Goetheanum and precisely directed the up to 10,000 lm light of the RGBW washlights onto the building thanks to the SnapMag filter frames.

"Colours are the heart and soul of the theatre," Klaus Suppan – who, together with Ilmarin Fradley, is responsible for the lighting at the Goetheanum – explained at the time the interplay of architecture, stage design and lighting on the occasion of the Faust production. A guiding principle that seems all the more meaningful on the last day of the year 2022 – and that makes the sea of flames of the night of fire 100 years ago shine in a new, reconciliatory light.