Until the end of April 2020, anyone passing through Place des fleurs-de-Macadam on the corner of Mont-Royal Avenue and Boyer Street will be able to look up and see élément, an art installation designed by Stéphanie Leduc and Manuel Baumann that radiates warm, organic light and produces an illusion of heat.
A fusion of art, light, and technology, élément is inspired by the incandescence of a light bulb filament. Its flickering is intended to evoke the intensity of the current that flows from one person to another. Every one of us is a marvellous living machine, brimming with energy that we harness to create, dream, share, and receive. In the end, we are but a sum of electrons connected by an invisible guiding thread that is integral to our very essence: the human connection. In fact, this connection is at the heart of every event and artistic project featured on Mont-Royal Avenue.
“Even though designing and installing élément came with a few challenges, we wanted to create a simple, universally understood artwork that evokes the warm light of an incandescent light bulb,” said Stéphanie Leduc. “In the spirit of conserving energy, it was important that the installation consume about the same amount of power as the lighting that is usually set up to illuminate this small space at night,” she added.
élément is delicate, linear, vibrant, and glows with a beautiful, red and amber light. The art installation is suspended in the air, symbolizing the profound belief that the human connection is vital to us in the same way air, water, earth, and fire is.
Project: élément
Location: Place des fleurs-de-Macadam, Plateau-Mont-Royal, Montréal, Québec
Size: 32 m x 3 m, suspension 9 m
Co-design: EN TEMPS ET LIEU and Odace Événements
Manufacturing: Softbox Intégration
Production: Société de développement de l’Avenue du Mont-Royal
Year of completion: 2020
Photographer: Jean-François Lamoureux
