London-based interdisciplinary designer and 'art engineer' Moritz Waldemeyer has unveiled a site-specific lighting installation to accompany Andrea Mastrovito's monumental Agnus Dei installation at Sagrada Família in Barcelona. Commissioned by the Junta Constructora de la Sagrada Família, Mastrovito's hand-crafted glass sculpture of a lamb is intended to bring Antoni Gaudí's vision to completion.
Throughout his career, Waldemeyer has seamlessly inhabited a space where art, engineering, technology and light intersect. His work ranges from luminous headpieces for singer Jamiroquai to responsive lighting designs that mimic the warmth of candlelight, and immersive sculptural installations that elevate the experience of light to new technological mediums. Despite working with and developing cutting-edge technology through his practice, Waldemeyer's pieces always feel like they exist at a human level, considering light not as a static tool but as something alive.
Illuminating the Sagrada Família
Mastrovito's sculpture sits within the cross crowning the Tower of Jesus Christ, 172m high, and features a symbolic glass lamb, originally envisioned by Gaudí as part of his plans for the basilica, whose construction finished this year after starting in 1882.
Waldemeyer was tasked with illuminating the light sculpture without showing obvious light sources, a blend of design, engineering and craftsmanship that encapsulates the studio's expertise. Rising to the challenge, the designer devised a concealed ultraviolet lighting technology with high-energy focused light sources that in the darkness activate the artwork's phosphorescent pigments after dark, making it glow.
This also allows the inscription verses from John 1,29, inscribed within the gilded rays surrounding the sculpture, to emerge, adding a new layer of meaning to the work. Rendered in Latin, the lettering spells out the verse 'The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world"'.
More than a mere technical feat, the lighting project was achieved using newly developed technology inspired by automotive lighting and applied to evoke an emotional visual effect. The result, the studio explains, 'feels like pure magic: an artwork that emits a mysterious glow without any visible light source, wiring or technology. The engineering disappears entirely, leaving visitors to encounter only the Lamb and its seemingly immaterial light.'
'Projects such as the Sagrada Família demand a different way of thinking about technology,' said Waldemeyer and Nazanin Farhabod, co-founders of Studio Waldemeyer. 'Our role was not to create a lighting effect, but to make the technology disappear completely, allowing visitors to experience only the artwork itself. The most successful solution is often the one that cannot be seen.'
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