“Rush Hour” at Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig and MEET Milan

Mou Factory brought the Neoclassical works of Giovanni Battista Piranesi to life in Leipzig and Milan.

After presenting their piece, “Rush Hour,” at an immersive collective exhibition at the Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig for Bright Festival in 2020, Mou Factory were invited by The Fake Factory and MEET Digital Culture Center to adapt the experience to their venue in Milan. Collaborating with Sound Designer Matteo Milani, the team, using Notch, brought to life the etchings of Italian Classical archaeologist, architect, and artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, known for his depictions of Rome and the constructed “prisons” of life, represented by Escher-esque buildings.

Mou Factory began by recreating the paintings in 3D space with Cinema 4D, mapping the camera projections to be sure they displayed the correct point of view. The studio especially focused on animating the human figures of Piranesi’s work, who, as noted by French essayist Marguerite Yourcenar, seem to pass each other indifferently, never acknowledging or communicating with each other. They designed the structure of their plane for their crowd simulation and proceeded to build it with Anima.

The team then put all the etchings through a pre-compositing phase in After Effects and began working with the audio-reactive luma maps in Notch. With the finished product, Mou Factory created an atmosphere where the audience seemed to morph with the artistic works, and art and reality became one.