Gaspar Battha explores light and perception in the installation "Canvas"

The interactive installation Canvas, developed by Hungarian artist Gaspar Battha, was presented at the Zsolnay Light Festival 2024, in the historic space Cella Septichora, in the city of Pécs, Hungary. The work investigates how digital projection, optical reflection, and public movement can produce images that appear to occupy physical space.

In the installation, the visitor's displacement activates animations projected in real time. The images emerge reflected in a system of mirrors and create the impression of luminous forms suspended in the air. The so-called "painting" within the frame does not exist as an object. It is formed only in the observer's field of vision.

Gaspar Battha's work falls within the realm of digital art and new media installations. In previous projects, the artist had already explored visual structures constructed through projection, reflection, and generative animation. In these experiences, physical space functions as a support for images that depend on human perception to exist.

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The Canvas proposal shifts the focus from the paper's role as a simple visual element. The work utilizes mapped projection, reflective surfaces, and bodily interaction to investigate how the image can emerge between the object and the gaze. The result is a perceptual system in which technology and cognition act simultaneously.

Festivals such as the Zsolnay Light Festival have consolidated an international circuit dedicated to light-based, projection-based, and interactive art. Held since 2016, the event brings together digital and experimental installations at various points in the city of Pécs, attracting artists and audiences interested in new forms of visual and spatial experience.