Katarina Löfström

Katarina Löfström (*1970 Falun, SE) is widely renowned for her light and video installations, in which her interest in various stages of consciousness often becomes apparent: wakefulness, daydreams, the hypnagogic state and trance.  

The light installation Rosario is no exception in this regard. Löfström created the artwork especially for the stairwell of the EPO’s PschorrHöfe building, where it can be seen from both inside and outside the premises. 150 yellow and white LED bulbs are suspended from the ceiling on around 300 m of cable. As the title suggests, they take on the form of a kind of rosary. However, the recitation in question here is rather different to those that might accompany the use of a traditional rosary: the bulbs are programmed to flash such that they convey in Morse code the words "eyes open" and "wide awake", in a continuous loop. These are the phrases used to bring hypnotised people back from a trance.  

Technically, the work would not of course be possible without two key inventions: Thomas Alva Edison’s light bulb and Nikolai Tesla’s alternating current. The control mechanism and use of LEDs mark the technological progress made since, adding yet another dimension to this atmospheric work.