“People are interested in the basilica, whether they are believers or not,” says art teacher Martin Tag from Weingarten. Together with Sonja Heim from the St. Martin Parish Council, he organized a photo competition to mark the building’s anniversary.
The 30 best entries will be exhibited in the castle building of the University of Education (PH) until January 2, 2025.
Craftsmen provided particularly exciting motifs
“These photos are really what we wanted – with new perspectives, unusual, like you may never have seen the basilica before,” says Heim, who is surprised by the number and quality of the images sent to her. They achieved around 300 photos, often more than one image per participant. The initiators, together with Dean Ekkehard Schmid and student Ella Kiechle, selected the 30 best, which will now be shown in the PH.
Curators Martin Tag and Sonja Heim explain in the video what makes the exhibition so special:
Locals, tourists, but also people who have a professional connection to the building, such as a restorer or a carpenter, took part. From the initiators’ point of view, they provided particularly exciting perspectives.
You can view individual images critically, but you don’t have to.
Curator Martin Tag
Recommended articles
Sonja Heim and Martin Tag only gave three tips in their call. When taking photos, you should pay attention to the color effect, image composition and unusual perspectives. The participants, most of whom were amateur photographers, succeeded very well.
Many photos are open to interpretation. “You can view individual images critically, but you don’t have to,” says Tag. “Everyone sees something different.”
Exhibited images are available for purchase
Many images are about details that make them unique. “It’s crazy how things sometimes harmonize,” says Tag, for whom this is the first photo exhibition he has curated. The artist explains what he means using the example of a photo. This shows a fresco on which a butterfly had settled. The restorer Eva Höfle, who worked on the ceiling painting as part of the interior renovation this year, captured the moment.
The 30 images shown can be purchased at the end of the exhibition. Anyone who is interested can enter their order in a list on site. Three prints are available for sale per exhibit.
Sonja Heim from the St. Martin parish council in Weingarten and the curator of the exhibition, art teacher Martin Tag. (Photo: Lea Ameel)
13 photos can also be found in a calendar that the parish is currently selling. According to Heim, this will refinance the project. Most copies are already sold out.
The Din A3 calendar costs twelve euros and is available in the parish offices of St. Martin and St. Maria/Hl. Geist, available at the tourist information office, the Weingarten public library and in Strobels Lädele at the weekly market. Because there were so many high-quality photos, there could still be a calendar in 2026, Heim predicts.
The photo exhibition is located in the PH castle building (entrance in the archways) and runs until January 2nd, 2025. It can be viewed from Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on Saturdays until 4 p.m.
