“Nicolo, in his image” is the title of the highly successful event organized in Adrano (Ct) to celebrate the anniversary of the patron saint, Nicolo Politi. With an innovative light, sound and color show, the Etnean town paid homage to its patron, whose devotion is lost in the centuries considering that the saint was born in the town of Adernò (present-day Adrano) around the year 1117.
The challenge of the organizing association “Buongiorno Sicilia” and art director Gaetano La Mela was precisely to combine technological innovation and respect for cultural and spiritual tradition.
Hence a painstaking work of iconographic research that led to the identification of paintings capable of best synthesizing the salient hagiographic aspects of the Sicilian hermit.
The next step was to transform artistic suggestions into images that could be faithfully reproduced on the special dichroic gobos made by Goboservice.
Special attention had to be paid to both the color gradations and the definition of the many symbolic details necessary to tell the story of the miracles in which St. Nicholas was a protagonist.
This resulted in an ongoing dialogue with Goboservice’s graphics team to arrive at the best possible image definition while, at the same time, the technical department studied the positioning of the Divum 50k projectors chosen to ensure the best emotional impact on the audience.
The versatility of thewide zoom lens with which the machine is equipped, together with the maximization of the efficiency of the lighting apparatus centered on the standard cob-led, made it possible to effectively enhance the various surfaces of the buildings involved in the projections.
But the main innovative element of the lighting setup was the use of Dmx not so much for the remote control of the projectors as for the management of the synchronized image changes integrated into the entire scenic apparatus.
Into the console managed by Meridional Service technicians came the lighting services of the specific monuments characterizing the city center including the Divum 50k projectors equipped with cambiogobo dedicated to the narration of scenes from the Saint’s life.
The result was the generation of “changing and speaking” images perfectly aligned on the surfaces of a historic building in Umberto Square.
Baricentric on this then loomed the imposing Norman tower coeval with the Adranite saint. With a winning insight of the art direction, the sides of the tower projected the two profiles of St. Nicholas while the main facade housed additional artistic reproductions.
The result was a “tower of light” capable of catalyzing the attention of tourists and residents at a great distance with a three-dimensional image, magically suspended in the darkness of the night.
Great satisfaction expressed by organizers and administrators, starting with the mayor, Hon.
Fabio Mancuso already leaning toward new communication challenges to highlight … the hidden treasures of the city community.
