December 21, 2011 – Again this winter, Montréal’s Quartier des spectacles is shimmering with light. Running until February 26, the second season of Luminotherapie (Light Therapy) chases the shadows away with three interactive light installations that are open to the public.
Nuage de givre – Place des Festivals
The brainchild of Jean Beaudoin and Erick Villeneuve, this installation invites visitors to walk beneath a cloud of virtual “frost,” which is composed of 100,000 water droplets in 5,500 containers that hang over the Place des festivals. By day, light is refracted through the water or glows through the ice, animating the ground below. After dark, the movement of people in the square initiates the appearance of mini auroras within the area. As January approaches, the lights comprising the Nuage de givre will slowly change from blue to red to signal the arrival of the New Year. This installation is bound to delight anyone who walks through the Quartier this winter.
Éclats de verre – Place Émilie-Gamelin (corner of Saint-Hubert and Sainte-Catherine Streets)
Designed by Félix Dagenais, Louis-Xavier Gagnon-Lebrun, Éric Gautron of ATOMIC3.ca, this interactive exhibition invites visitors to walk through a labyrinth of giant stained-glass panels and allows them take part in this living work of art, which seems to breath through the movement of shadows and the multi-coloured reflections created by the sun’s natural rays. After sundown, the installation includes a giant video projection that lights up the Hôtel des Gouverneurs and Place Dupuis. The exhibition is entirely interactive, allowing visitors to join in and transform their surroundings by changing the video projections, adjusting the lighting, and shaping the sound.
Forêt Forêt – Saint-Laurent metro station
Conceived of by Amandine Guillard, Albane Guy, Anik Poirier and TagTeam Studio, Forêt Forêt transforms the space outside the Saint-Laurent metro station into a dreamlike wintry world. Passers-by can take a moment to linger in this virtual birch forest and make it come alive through the sound of their voice, as speaking into the hollow of a tree creates an echo that lights up the forest.
