Luftwerk

Chicago, United States

Luftwerk, the artistic duo of Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero,  explores light, color, and perception in immersive, experience-based installations. Focused on the site of each project, Luftwerk applies their own interpretive layer, integrating the physical structure, historical context, and embedded information into each piece. Since founding in 2007, they have amassed a significant body of work ranging from site-specific installations to experimental projects that interpret data, nature and the built environment. Their work explores the power of light as a crucial element to sight and its relationship to the perception of color. Using various modalities—projecting videos, casting shadows, creating custom sculpture—light is integral to every project. Through their career, Luftwerk has developed projects for iconic buildings by architects including Renzo Piano, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bruce Goff and Mies van der Rohe. In each project, they draw from the surrounding environment to interpret and expand on the context of the site.

 

 

2025 Biennial Project

Project Overview

One Point Perspective Study No. 2

Drawing inspiration from the theories of Italian Renaissance painter and polymath Leon Battista Alberti, One Point Perspective Study No. 2 is an immersive wall painting that uses perception as material. The work invites viewers to observe how light, colour, and spatial rhythm transform into a sensory field. Luftwerk applies Alberti’s ideas on colour and perspective to create an ever-changing spatial view, where light, colour, and form fuse and shift. The piece highlights Luftwerk’s focus on using light to shift space and alter perception, while the one-point perspective nods to the classical foundations of architecture.

Installed in the fourth-floor windows of 840 N. Michigan, One Point Perspective Study No. 2 activates the façade and is best viewed from the east side of Michigan Avenue.

Supported by the Graham Foundation and John McKinnon, Elmhurst Art Museum
Special thanks to AV Chicago and Stephen Monkemeier

PREVIOUS WORK

Project Overview

Venue

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840 N. Michigan Avenue

Address

840 N. Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611

Description

The Biennial expands its footprint downtown with the opening of its fifth site at 840 N. Michigan Avenue, transforming more than 65,000 square feet of space on the Magnificent Mile into a dynamic hub for art, design, and dialogue. 

Chicago Architecture Biennial at 840 N. Michigan Ave. Photo: Pablo Gerson.
Chicago Architecture Biennial