Fiat Lux: Illuminating our Common Home

Role: Art Direction / Design / Animation

An amazing project working with the talented team at Obscura Digital for a client named Pope Francis.

Obscura was chosen by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council to create a contemporary artistic interpretation of Pope Francis’ Encyclical, “Laudato Si.” The large-scale architectural projection show entitled: “Fiat Lux: Illuminating Our Common Home” was presented as a gift to Pope Francis to celebrate the opening of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. It was the first time that art has ever been projected onto St. Peter’s Basilica.

A crowd of over 200,000 people gathered to watch the show live in the Piazza San Pietro, while 4 million watched via live stream video. Media coverage generated another billion global impressions.
The show was funded by the Li Ka Shing Foundation and Vulcan Productions.
“Laudato Si,” means “Praise be to you,” a phrase commonly used by Saint Francis, the patron saint of animals and ecology and Pope Francis’ namesake. In writing his impassioned plea for greater focus on the environment, Pope Francis cited areas of particular concern: pollution and climate change, the lack of clean water for much of the world’s population, and loss of biodiversity.

To bring the pope’s message to life, Obscura created an unprecedented 60-minute show featuring powerful images of humanity diversity and natural beauty from world-renowned photographers and curated by Travis Threlkel and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Louie Psyhoyos (The Cove). Using 21st century art and 50 high lumen projectors, the show was presented as a visual symphony in seven movements.
Fiat Lux: Illuminating our Common Home featured the work of some of the world’s most noted humanistic and nature photographers and filmmakers including Sebastiao Salgado and Amazonas Images, Joel Sartore and his Photo Ark series, Yann Arthus Bertrand, David Doubilet, Ron Fricke, Howard Hall, Shawn Heinrichs, Greg Huglin, Chris Jordan, Mark Magidson, Steve McCurry, Louie Schwartzberg and Paul Nicklen.