Mind The Gap
Chateau Lacoste
Client: Chateau La Coste
Image: Personal property
Invited by Chateau La Coste, JR inaugurated a new installation in December 2017. In the Renzo Piano Pavilion, he has created an optical illusion that appears very simple while achieving technical prowess.
The image is surreptitiously offered to the visitors when they move closer to the installation as the result of the synchronisation of700 overlapping electric train wagons that create a mosaic of face fragments. The image revealeddisappears as quickly as it appeared, letting each train go at his own pace.
As a nod to previous projects, including his action on a train going through the slums of Kibera, Kenya in 2009 and to his installation at the Panthéon (Paris, France) in 2014, JR uses an easily identifiable mechanical process to create a new illusion.
TECHNOLOGY
- Static load calculation of suspended frame
- Movement sensing and calibration
MATERIALS
- Custom curved glass
- Stainless steel profiles
- Model trains and carts
PROCESSES
- On demand synchronization of trains
- Forming of large scale graphic
Having drawn attention earlier this year with politically charged works, French artist JR has now launched his latest exhibition — “Mind The Gap.” Taking place at Château La Coste, the central piece in the Renzo Piano Pavilion is a series of 700 painted miniature trains that move constantly to create a hypnotizing motion.
Previously JR’s most recent work was to host a giant picnic across the Mexico and U.S. borders, capping off what had been a year of increasingly larger-scale politically-based artworks for the French artist. by HYPEBEAST
