Unframed Collection partners with NUMIX Lab, an itinerant European event that brings together immersive creation professionals in dialogue with cultural institutions across the continent. The 6th edition in 2025 brought together 459 participants from around the world across 16 venues in Budapest, Veszprém, Vienna, and Linz, fostering exchanges between Europe and North America around immersive cultural practices.
On this occasion we met with Nina Wlodarczyk, Curatorial Project Leader working with ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe), a major institution combining research, exhibition and event production in the field of media art. As a freelancer, she is involved in one of the ZKM’s long running public events, the Schlosslichtspiele Light Art Festival, one of the largest projection mapping festivals in Europe.
In this interview, Nina Wlodarczyk shares a very concrete, behind-the-scenes perspective on what it actually means to produce immersive artworks at a monumental scale, from curatorial choices to technical implementation, and reflects more broadly on the role of media art today, between constraints, experimentation and fundamental societal questions.
I’m always working on finding the best technical solutions, both for the artists and for the audience, so that we can present the best possible version of the work, but it’s always difficult because everything is expensive. We decide the technical solutions as a curatorial circle and work on it, but we also expect the artists to bring ideas. Then we work with them, with technical directors, to find solutions within the available budget. I don’t let an artist say, “I only have the content, I don’t know how to make it work.” We have to find a way together.
— Nina Wlodarczyk
To begin, could you briefly introduce ZKM and explain your role as Curatorial Project Leader ?
Nina Wlodarczyk – I’m working as a freelancer for ZKM on the Schlosslichtspiele Light Art Festival in Karlsruhe in Germany, where I am the curatorial project leader. I’m not actually part of the curatorial department at the ZKM, and I’m not a curator or an art director in the traditional sense – I’m originally trained as a lawyer, so art was not my field of study at all.
What I do there is mainly project management, even though it’s framed as a curatorial project role. I would say maybe 10 to 20% of my work is really curatorial, and the rest is project management. It’s making everything happen on site, working with technicians to make the art happen.
Because in this context, curating doesn’t stop with selecting artworks. It also means deciding on projectors, beams, technical setups, checking the mapping, the warping on the façade – everything that determines how the work will be seen in the end.
ZKM has a unique identity combining exhibition, research and production. How does immersive and media art fit within this model?
N. W. – In Germany, museums traditionally have three main roles: exhibiting, collecting and preserving, and doing research. ZKM is not exactly a museum, it’s a center, but we still operate within this logic. So we have this exhibition part, in the buildings, or in the case of my project, the festival, outside, in the city. On the city’s palace facade, not ours.
It was a decision made twelve years ago, during the 300th anniversary of the city, when Peter Weibel, the head of ZKM at the time, decided that instead of staying within the institution, we should move the exhibition into the city’s nucleus.
That’s quite important, because it changes the relationship with the audience completely.
The other part in our institution is of course the research, with the Hertz Lab, like the Hertz waves. In the Hertz Lab, we are working on new media, new technologies, code, sound and image together, because today there is no real separation anymore between these fields in the multimedia world.
Could you tell us more about the Schlosslichtspiele festival and the projects you are currently working on?
N. W. – The festival runs every year from mid-August to mid-September.. At the moment, I’m preparing the 12th edition, and we start very early, not only because we’re German, but because it makes things much easier for the artists if everything is well prepared in advance.
We organize two open calls. One is the BBBank Award, sponsored by a local bank, where three winners receive funding to produce a five minute projection show. These shows premiere on the opening night of the festival, and then run in competition, with the audience voting via SMS
The other one is the dm-Award. dm is a grocery store, it’s very famous in Europe, and the headquarters are in Karlsruhe. This award is called Connecting Worlds. And the idea is to make a connection between the digital and analog world.
Then every year, depending on the budget and partnerships, we commission additional shows. Last year, for example, it was the 200th anniversary of the university.
We also have a summer school, which is a very intense format: participants create a full show in two weeks. They work day and night, because the resolution is extremely high – the façade is around 3,000 square meters – but in the end, they produce a complete piece that becomes part of the festival.
Over the years, we’ve built an archive of around 60 works, so we can change the program almost every night, mix new productions with older ones, and even create thematic evenings, for example focused on music or science.
From your experience, what do you see as the strengths and limitations of large-scale immersive experiences? How do you approach questions of audience engagement, accessibility and long-term sustainability?
N. W. – I’ve been invited to many festivals and it’s always a discussion, even in juries: what is an immersive space?I think the House of Music, here in Budapest, is a very good example.
I’ve seen many different formats, some very simple, like projections in a courtyard, and still we considered them immersive. So it’s not only about technology, but about how the audience is positioned and how they relate to the space. With the palace façade, there is a central part and two wings, like arms, and depending on where you stand, you can feel surrounded by the architecture. In some areas, we also have spatialized sound, so the experience becomes more enveloping.
So immersion is really about the combination of space, sound and image, and how these elements create a relationship with the audience. I think the House of Music, here in Budapest, is a very good example.
When curating digital or XR works, how do you balance artistic experimentation with the need to make technologically complex projects accessible and meaningful to diverse audiences? What curatorial criteria guide your selection process?
N. W. – I’m always working on finding the best technical solutions, both for the artists and for the audience, so that we can present the best possible version of the work, but it’s always difficult because everything is expensive.
We decide the technical solutions as a curatorial circle and work on it,but we also expect the artists to bring ideas. Then we work with them, with technical directors, to find solutions within the available budget. I don’t let an artist say, “I only have the content, I don’t know how to make it work.” We have to find a way together.
In the end, it’s always a balance between budget, technical solutions and the best possible experience.
Looking ahead, what major challenges and opportunities do you foresee for institutions working with media art?
The first challenge is clearly funding. We are coming from relatively rich times. But now, everywhere, budgets are being reduced, and art is often the first thing to be cut.There are also different systems depending on the country – in Germany, funding is managed at the state level, while in other places it might be more centralized or based on private sponsorship.
Another recurring topic is energy consumption. People often think that light festivals use huge amounts of electricity, but in reality, it’s much less than expected, thanks to more efficient technologies.
But beyond that, I think it’s a broader societal question. Thousands of years ago, people decided that one person would stay in the cave to paint while others went hunting. It was already a choice to value art.
Today, it’s the same question: what are we willing to invest in culture?
Discover more interviews with curators and programmers on our blog.
