The 10th triennial INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM on DISPLAY HOLOGRAPHY was coming to St. Petersburg in 2015 following its succesful staging at the MIT Media Lab (USA) three years earlier. And the new host, ITMO University, together with the Hellenic Institute of Holography needed to impress. So an enhanced exhibition on Optics with Display Holography at its core, such as Magic of Light, was the natural choice for the city where the father of holography, Yuri Nikolaevich Denisyuk, had worked. At the same time, 2015 was declared the UNESCO 'International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies' and the city of St.Petersburg chose the exhibition Magic of Light as one of its key events for the occasion.

A recently renovated XIXth century residence building, Elisseev's House, currently hosting ITMO University's TechnoPark and well-known among the citizens of St. Petersburg, was selected as the hosting venue for the exhibition Magic of Light in two floors and an open-air yard with total area of approx. 1,200 sqm. The general concept already tested during the pilot exhibition 'Light Mysteries' (Natural History Museum of Crete, 2013-2014) was basically repeated with equal weight in terms of exhibits between holography and the rest of Optics, this time with a much clearer edutainment approach. READ MORE...

In spite of public demand, the exhibition could not be extended further than originally planned as its success interferred with the daily operation of the other functions of the building; so, on Nov 10, 2015 it officlally came to an end with more than 82,000 visitors to that date from several countries and surrounding areas of St. Petersburg including more than 150 organized school visits. For the duration of the show, tickets were sold mostly through the web but also over the counter.  

During its operation, the exhibition repeatedly attracted considerable media coverage in web and printed articles as well as TV coverage. A 150-page booklet with Press Clippings (click here to view this list) of various types was collated by a professional marketing agency. Equally, the exhibition was widely covered by enthousiastic visitors in social media by posting numerous Unofficial Videos (click here for a YouTube limited selection playlist), public Instagram PhotoPics in two separate accounts (#magicoflight and #атакаоптоклонов) and lots of postings in local FaceBook/VK/OK.   READ MORE...