---
title: "Leipzig Festival of Lights | The Cabinet – mammasONica"
url: "https://lichtfest.leipziger-freiheit.de/en/festival-of-lights-programme/leipzig-festival-of-lights-2026/6-the-cabinet-mammasonica"
description: "On 9ᵗʰ of October, the Leipzig Festival of Lights 2026 commemorates the autumn of 1989 with light installations and candles. The project \"The Cabinet\" can be shown at Matthäikirchhof."
language: "en"
breadcrumb: "Root > Leipzig Festival of Lights > Leipzig Festival of Lights Programme > Festival of Lights 2026 > 6: The Cabinet – mammasONica"
---

The Cabinet

mammasONica (Italy)

 

The artists’ collective mammasONica transforms the courtyard of the former Stasi headquarters (Matthäikirchhof) into a monumental projection surface. A seemingly unremarkable filing cabinet appears – a symbol of a system that collected information and shaped reality. Drawers open, archives are set in motion and order begins to dissolve. A poetic image of change emerges from the rigid structure. Digital animation meets handcrafted plasticine stop-motion – technical precision encounters visible deformation. The façade becomes a narrative threshold between past and present. Rather than reconstructing events, the work offers an experience of how systems shape perception – and how collective imagination can transform them.

 

*The Cabinet* at a glance

### Matthäikirchhof, courtyard of the former Stasi headquarters

Location

### Video installation

Project type

### mammasONica, Italy

Artists’ collective

 

 

A portrait of the artist collective mammasONica
-----------------------------------------------

zwei schwarzweiß Portraits auf denen man die Gesichter vor hellem oder dunklem Hintergrund sieht

**mammasONica** is an Italian creative studio working in audiovisual performance, lighting design and interactive installations. Its large-scale projects are presented internationally at renowned venues, including the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the Wadi Namar Waterfalls in Riyadh and the Buchenwald Memorial. The studio's site-specific works are considered exemplary in their approach to places with a complex or challenging identity and have received numerous international awards.

- 
-