Kurt Schwerdtfeger’s Reflektorische Farblichtspiele

In 1922 at the home of Vassily Kandinsky, a then twenty-five-year-old artist Kurt Schwerdtfeger premiered his Reflecting Color-Light-Play, today considered a seminal work of the Weimar Bauhaus movement and of twentieth century sculpture. Originally conceived as a play for the Lantern Festival, the piece utilizes a large cube projection apparatus in which performers activate cardboard shapes and a switchboard of colored lights to form a complex, abstract live shadow play appearing on its screen surface. The work was last performed in 1966 in a re-staging overseen by the artist himself before his death later that year. This rendition, performed by Lary 7, features a newly built apparatus and a visual score based on the 1968 presentation, as well as the available original documentation.

Dreamlands: Expanded is a series of expanded cinema events organized by Microscope Gallery in collaboration with the Whitney as part of the exhibition Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016.

Tickets for this event are available for purchase here. 

Please note: All Dreamlands: Expanded events take place at Microscope Gallery, with the exception of Steam Screens and The Owl Flies at Twilight, which will both be presented at Knockdown Center in Maspeth, Queens.