The church of Santa Coloma restores its Romanesque paintings through mapping

Burzón & Comenge and Playmodes Studio have made a videomapping to recreate the 12th century paintings of the church of Santa Coloma. Six projectors have been installed for its execution.: one in the ship, that projects the images on the arch, and five inside the apse.

The church of Santa Coloma in Andorra has been able to virtually and digitally restore the Romanesque paintings made in the 12th century to their place of origin thanks to the videomapping technique. The UTE formed by creative studios Burzón & it begins y Playmodes Studio They have been in charge of the project.

In April of 2017, the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Olga Gelabert, and the major consul of Andorra la Vella, Conxita Marsol, accompanied by the general director of Culture, Montserrat Planelles, and the vicar general of the Bishopric of Urgell, Monsex Josep M. Mauri, They visited the church of San Clemente de Taüll, where they saw in situ the Romanesque paintings projected with the videomapping system, which was launched in 2014.

After seeing the project carried out, they decided to use the same technology in the Church of Santa Coloma to virtually recover the mural paintings that were painted in its apse and front in the 12th century..

The alterations that these have suffered over the years make it impossible to return them to their original location and they considered that videomapping was the best solution to see in situ what the Romanesque paintings could have originally looked like..

After the award of public tender, the UTE formed by Burzón & Comenge and Playmodes Studio were in charge of carrying out the project.

Through mapping and comparative interpretation with other contemporary pictorial groups in Santa Coloma, The paintings have been virtually reconstructed to recreate what they would have been like in their original state., including the gaps left by the eight centuries that have passed. The result is projected onto the walls of the original support.: the apse and the front of the church.

The original Romanesque paintings are exhibited in the Columba Space, the building located a few meters from the worship center.

The awarding study, creator of the Taüll video projection and the digital recreation of Ullastret, has worked from a virtual 3D model based on photographs of the space and Romanesque paintings.

The devices project an animation of the process of creating the paintings and their symbology. Flatter colors appear in the background, the borders and the sketches to end up seeing the details. The images are projected following the iconographic importance.

In total, six projectors have been installed: one in the ship, that projects the images on the arch, and five inside the apse. The screening lasts ten minutes.