Pointes for SKALAR immersive art installation
- Details
Ninety Robe Pointe moving lights plus 65 x double-sided mirrors each with a perimeter ring of 180 addressable pixels and suspended on 195 x custom WHITEvoid motors were at the core of the work.
SKALAR premiered at Kraftwerk in Berlin last year. The former turbine hall of the derelict old power station provided a dramatic, charismatic, industrial cathedral-like backdrop for this powerful piece. It was a huge success, and Christopher’s ambition was always to tour it to other cool places around the world.
Fronton Mexico offered similar installation and spatial parameters for the lighting, mirrors / kinetic winch system and audio set-ups, but being a black box space, it was a completely new environment in which to present the immersive SKALAR experience.
These challenges appealed to Christopher, David Letellier (Kanding Ray) and production manager Martin Kuhn who has worked with Christopher on several projects and is based in Germany and Mexico.
Whilst essentially the same show, some of the soundscape and lighting cues were reimagined for Mexico. While nothing needed radical changing, Christopher and David took the opportunity to finesse their intricate collaboration with the experience and information gained in Berlin, to work even more coherently and with additional impact.
The opportunity of taking SKALAR to Mexico City was initially explored by the project’s production manager Marin Kuhn – also a lighting designer and programmer in his own right.
Martin put the idea to promoter Héctor Mijangos, who is well-known on the Mexican electronic music scene, and he was extremely interested. A series of connections and happy coincidences led to the show being booked and installed into the Fronton venue.
“This work was totally unique and ground-breaking in Mexico,” states Hector, “and all of us involved were extremely keen to be part of something so fresh, innovative and different.”
Martin and local production manager Jose “Pepe” Cuevas coordinated all the local suppliers which included LED Project who supplied the Robe Pointes with support from Robe’s International team – having supported the original installation in Berlin as a technical partner - together with Robe’s Mexican distributor, Showco.
LED Project has one of the largest stocks of Robe moving lights in Mexico and owner Sergio Serrano has been instrumental in establishing the brand in the country. He commented, “I am very honoured to have been part of SKALAR Mexico, it’s been fantastic to work on something of this scale with a fantastic international team and to see spectacular results.”
A big difference between Mexico and Berlin was that the piece had to be completely stand-alone inside the pitch-black velvet bolton clad Fronton auditorium, unlike Kraftwerk where the ambient light revealed an endless vista of raw industrial architecture and detail.
This meant that the whole visual focus in Mexico was on the light beams. The effects were to make it even more all-encompassing, truly immersive and easier to lose yourself and focus your energy on feeling those emotions.
(Jim Evans)
