Emmeringer Weihnacht 2026: How children’s paintings become 22 metres wide
From 11 to 13 December 2026, the white wall of the Amperhalle in Emmering becomes a canvas. After nightfall, it shows paintings made by children at OGTS Emmering, the open all-day school programme. On their painting sheet the wall is just over 50 centimetres wide. At the hall it measures 22 metres. Here is how a painting travels from one scale to the other. It is a painting project by Campos Viola for the Emmeringer Weihnacht, the Christmas market in front of the Amperhalle. OGTS Emmering and Magic Event- und Medientechnik support the project.
Why this wall?
The Amperhalle wall is made of pale, smooth panels that reflect the light. It is 22 metres wide and up to 9 metres high from the dark band to the roofline.
For three evenings it shows what the children have painted. It carries no advertising: not a logo, not a company name, ours included. A small area on the left gives the day’s programme for the Emmeringer Weihnacht.
How does a wall become a sheet of paper?
The painting sheet is the wall. Made from a photograph of the hall, it shows the wall in its true proportions on A2 paper. Areas outside the wall are hatched. What a child paints in the white space is exactly what the wall will show.
From paper to wall, everything is enlarged just over forty times. A line one centimetre wide on paper becomes more than 40 centimetres wide on the wall. The first instruction on the sheet asks the children to paint the whole wall in strong colours.
What happens to the paintings?
The children begin painting at the OGTS on 16 November, supported by its staff. The theme is the Emmeringer Weihnacht as the children imagine it. Taking part is voluntary. There is no competition, and there are no prizes.
The finished paintings are handed in at the OGTS by early December, rolled or stacked flat, never folded. Michael Campos Viola then photographs them and prepares the projection. Once the Emmeringer Weihnacht is over, the OGTS returns the originals to the children.
How does the picture get onto the wall?
Two projectors of 20,000 lumens each share the wall. Their images overlap by about 6 metres in the middle and blend softly together. The paintings fill the wall from the dark band to the roofline. In the video, anything that would extend beyond the wall is masked in black.
The projectors sit in protective cases on a continuous scaffold above the flower beds in front of the hall, about 10 metres from the wall. Escape routes and the area reserved for the fire brigade stay clear.
Magic Event- und Medientechnik of Maisach supplies the projectors and decides on the distances and lenses. A test run is planned before the first evening.
Where and when can you see the paintings?
You can see the paintings on all three evenings, from nightfall until the market closes, on the forecourt of the Amperhalle, Lauscherwörth 3 in Emmering. The Emmeringer Weihnacht is open on Friday from 6 to 10 pm, on Saturday from 3 to 10 pm and on Sunday from 2 to 7 pm. Admission is free. Directions are on Google Maps.
From 11 December we will also show pictures of the wall in this post, without names or ages. You can see them here if you cannot come to the market.
On those evenings we photograph and film the wall, not the children.
Who is behind it?
The paintings come out of a project by Campos Viola, supported by OGTS Emmering and Magic Event- und Medientechnik of Maisach. It costs the OGTS and the families nothing. Campos Viola bears the whole expense and makes nothing from it. The municipality of Emmering also supports it.
Behind Campos Viola is Michael Campos Viola from Emmering. He is a filmmaker and photographer with a B.A. (Hons) in Photography. He works as a Creative Director and is Vice President of the Munich Film and Video Club e.V.
Questions about the project? Email info@camposviola.ngo or call +49 8105 20 800 20.
