Interview: "Athletes should fight like tigers," says Swiss artist celebrating Beijing Winter Olympics

GENEVA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Swiss light artist Gerry Hofstetter's latest work "Tiger on Eiger" has lit up one of Switzerland's highest mountain peaks with a giant light projection of a tiger in celebration of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games being held at the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Tiger.

"The message was that all the athletes around the world participating in the Olympic Games should fight in China, in Beijing, like tigers for the metals, and some Swiss already won," Hofstetter told Xinhua recently.

With a distance of 7.7 km between the artist and the projection, Hofstetter said the artistic projection on the north face of the Eiger mountain in Grindelwald was one of the largest in the world, as the size of the tiger is 5.3 km long and 2.2 km tall.

The idea came to Hofstetter's mind when he realized the shape of the Eiger mountain is like a lying tiger which represents strength and power.

Hofstetter said he and his team spent more than a year preparing the projection, for which the weather, wind, clouds, moon position, snow and the constellation of the stars had to fit perfectly into a 15-minute timeframe.

Hofstetter said he particularly chose the time of the Beijing Winter Olympics to stage the show as he felt it would motivate all competing athletes to "fight like a tiger for victory."

"The main message behind Tiger on Eiger was to give a sign around the globe during the Year of the Tiger," said Hofstetter. "Everybody should fight in his or her life like a tiger and be encouraged to do things."

According to the artist, through the work which he sees as "a gift from Switzerland to the Asian world," he also wants to pay a tribute to the species of tiger, and encourage people to take measures to maintain the planet's ecological balance.

As an internationally active light artist and also a film producer, Hofstetter said he is committed to the fight against climate change and to a prosperous future for humans, animals and Nature.

"I would like to use this 'Tiger on Eiger' as a monument, as a symbol, to save the tigers and to motivate all the people to do something. If we save the tigers and the oceans, then we save our lives and the planet," he said.