Luminothérapie lights up Montreal

LUMINOTHéRAPIE LIGHTS UP MONTREAL

Posted by Robyn Fadden

As dusk falls in downtown Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles this winter, an interactive light show begins, eclipsing winter’s dull moments with inviting, sometimes irreverent works of art. Luminothérapie not only gets us to tour the Quartier in high-tech style but walk through an iceberg too.

Iceberg isn’t all snow and ice though; it’s a three-part, open-sided metal tunnel that responds to people’s movements – it creaks and drones, evoking the sounds of a real-life iceberg as it turns upside down in northern waters, while multi-coloured lights flash and fade along the way.

Located outside along the Place des Festivals (Jeanne-Mance between de Maisonneuve and Ste-Catherine Street), Iceberg is a piece of art created by Félix Dagenais and Louis-Xavier Gagnon-Lebrun – and it’s meant to be played with: standing in one spot or running right through will produce different results, from cacophonous noise to almost symphonic sounds.

Meanwhile, an interactive installation of a different sort lights up the facades of eight buildings throughout the Quartier: Le jour des 8 soleils has us pull out our iPhones or play an mp3 soundtrack as we follow a character from building to building. Artist Pascal Grandmaison uses video projections matched to the architecture of each building’s facade, joined by music and narration that lead the way, from Berri-UQAM metro station to Place des Festivals and points in between.

Even if you don’t have an iPhone or mp3 player, the installation is fantastic to simply look at on the outside walls of La Grande Bibliothèque, the Centre de design de l’UQAM, the Cégep du Vieux Montreal, Place de la Paix, Place Émilie-Gamelin, UQAM’s President Kennedy pavilion, Berri-UQAM metro station and Saint-Laurent metro station.

Along the way, also see the stunning arctic-focused photography of Daniel Beltrá’s Polar Drift – images of icebergs, frozen sea and naturally illuminated winter sky, all taken from high in the air – displayed in large format prints along the Promenade des Artistes (on de Maisonneuve between St-Urbain and Jeanne-Mance.) Iceberg and Polar Drift stick around until February 3 and the video projections of Le jour des 8 soleils are on display until March 2.

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Luminothérapie

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