Saint Petersburg
Hermitage Museum
Video Projection Mapping, 2017
/ Overview
In November 2017, on the centenary of the Russian Revolution, Luca Agnani Studio projected an architectural video mapping show on the facade of the Winter Palace — home of the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. The Winter Palace was built by Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli between 1754 and 1762 for Empress Elizabeth: 1,500 rooms, 46,000 square meters, a masterpiece of Russian Baroque. Thousands of spectators attended the event in Palace Square — about 5 hectares, one of the largest squares in Europe. It was precisely that facade that the Bolsheviks stormed on the night between 25 and 26 October 1917. One hundred years later, Luca Agnani Studio transformed it into a luminous story of history and memory. As Euronews reported, the show was one of the most significant events of the official centenary celebrations in Saint Petersburg.
/ Project Details
Name: 100 Years of the Russian Revolution
Client: Festival of Light / Saint Petersburg
Location: Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
Date: November 2017
Technique: Architectural Projection Mapping
Artist: Luca Agnani Studio
/ Challenge
Projecting on the facade of the Winter Palace meant engaging with one of the world’s most iconic buildings. The Hermitage is the second-largest museum in the world by exhibition area — over 233,000 square meters — and houses more than 3 million works, including masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Titian. Founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great, it receives more than 4 million visitors every year. The challenge was to create a visual narrative about the centenary that respected the historical complexity of the building: a tsarist palace transformed by the Bolsheviks into a museum for the people, a place of both imperial beauty and social revolution.
/ Visual Development
Historical memory
Archive photographs, propaganda posters, Soviet iconography and images of tsarist Saint Petersburg were reworked into animated sequences calibrated to the proportions of the Baroque facade of the Winter Palace, designed by Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli in 1754–1762. The building — with its 1,500 rooms and 46,000 square meters of surface — is the masterpiece of Russian Baroque.
Architectural dramaturgy
The Baroque facade of the Winter Palace — with its columns, decorated windows and volumes reflected on the Neva — was used as an active dramaturgical element. The projections amplified the monumentality of the building, transforming it into a cinematic scene visible from the whole of Palace Square, one of the largest squares in the world, with an area of about 5 hectares.
Historical storytelling
The event transformed Palace Square into an urban theater of light open to the city. As Euronews reported in its centenary coverage (November 2017), the 3D light show projected on the facade of the Winter Palace was one of the most significant events of the official celebrations in Saint Petersburg.
/ Solution
The video mapping transformed the 230 linear meters of the main facade of the Winter Palace into a cinematic sequence retracing the hundred years since the October Revolution. Archive photographs, propaganda posters and Soviet iconography were overlaid onto Rastrelli’s Baroque architecture in a narrative visible from across the square. The project fits into the tradition of major Russian light festivals — such as Moscow Circle of Light, where Luca Agnani Studio had already won third place in the Art Vision 2013 competition — bringing the language of Italian architectural video mapping to one of the most photographed monuments in the world.
/ Technique
Projection mapping
The facade was digitally reconstructed and calibrated on the real surface to achieve perspective correspondence, volumetric precision and depth effects.
Monumental projection
The main facade of the Winter Palace is about 230 meters long and 22 meters high. Covering the entire surface required a very high-power multi-projector system, positioned across Palace Square to ensure the correct projection distance and image readability on a monumental scale.
Sound & synchronization
The sound component accompanied the rhythmic development of the sequences, synchronizing images, transitions and architectural transformations into a single audiovisual narrative.
/ The Place
The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg is one of the largest and oldest museums in the world. Founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great as a private court collection, it opened to the public in 1852. The complex includes six historic buildings along the Neva embankment, including the Winter Palace — the official residence of the tsars from 1732 to 1917. The Winter Palace was at the heart of the October Revolution: on the night between 25 and 26 October 1917, Red Guard soldiers stormed the building, ending Kerensky’s provisional government. Since then, the Hermitage has become Russia’s largest art museum, with more than 3 million works — including masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Titian and Raphael — and more than 4 million visitors a year.
/ Copertura stampa
Euronews Italia
“A 3D light show projected on the facade of the Winter Palace, one of the most significant events of the centenary celebrations in Saint Petersburg” — November 2017.
ANSA Viaggi
“Throughout the winter, a giant screen installed in front of the Winter Palace projected images and footage evoking the revolution” — Saint Petersburg in the footsteps of the Revolution, December 2017.
Art.it
“Luca Agnani Studio has gained international recognition in digital art. Noteworthy is the video mapping for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution on the facade of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg.”
/ Context
The video mapping was created in November 2017 on the facade of the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. The project is among Luca Agnani Studio’s most important international works, combining architectural heritage, historical memory and digital language in a major public light event.