Moon

MOON – Christmas lights 14/15, Gran Via, Madrid

design: Ben Busche/ Brut Deluxe www.brutdeluxe.com
client: City Council Madrid
constructors: Ximenez SA , Ilmex SL
area: Gran Via, 1300 m length
year: 28 Nov 2014 – 06 Jan 2015
photography + video: Miguel de Guzman+Rocio Romero www.imagensubliminal.com
gif: brut deluxe
team: Philip Baumann, Elisa Luda
status: temporary/ build

Our installation, called Moon, was designed specifically for Gran Via by commission of the City of Madrid. It consists of 31 different light motives that, as a whole, acts like a flip book at urban scale of 31 images.
Instead of flipping through the pages with the thumb to produce a primitive cinematographic illusion of motion or animated pictures, with Moon it is the spectator itself that creates this effect by moving himself along the street.
Instead of a typical Christmas light installation, consisting of a determined design which is repeated n-times along a street, we created an installation that changes at each point of the route that is perceived completely only with time and by displacement.
The sequence of images represents a trip to the moon. Additionally to the displacement of the spectator, the installation utilizes the specific topography of Gran Via with its respective rises from each end; at Plaza España and the crossing with Alcala Street and its most elevated point located at half way, between the Telefonica Building and Plaza Callao. In so doing, the sequence of light motives produces an effect of approximation (zoom in) to the moon, coinciding with the rise of the street, and inversely, of departure (zoom out) with the descent.