The Ice Cloud, named in french ‘’Nuage de Givre’’, is a giant scale installation comprized of 100 000 water cells hovering over Montreal’s main downtown plaza. The artwork of 35,000 square feet is morphing to the weather, winds and, at night, visitors trigger light borealis will traveling under the cloud. The installation is part of an initiative by the Partenariat du Quartier des spectacles, an organization uniting all major cultural institutions of Downtown Montreal, to reclaim the public spaces of the city in winter time, in order to make Montreal a through Nordic City. The idea was initiated in 2009 by the installation Pixel field| Champ de pixels and as evolved into a national open competition ‘’Créer l’hiver| Creeate winter’’ that was won by Jean Beaudoin and Erick Villeneuve for their proposal ‘’ The Ice Cloud, Le Nuage de Givre’’.
The cloud is made out of 100 000 water cels made out of standard Cryopak cooling bags, hung on 4 giant nets. The installation thus react to the weather temperature as it liquifies at +5Celsius and freezes over at -5Celcius. The installation also react to the winds that are unveiled in moving cels and shades in daytime, and expressed in light at night. 10 surveillance camera are feeding 18 video projectors are generating lightborealis over the passerbys. The interactive lighting underlines the presence of Montrealers and visitors on the Plaza. A livecam over the site is both promoting the installation as well as enabling the visitor to see in real time on iphones the impact of their presence on the site. The morphing nature of the installation, defined by the context and its animation, is contributing to stenghten, and extend to winter, the identity of Quartier des spectacles, downtown’s theater district, and by extension Montreal’s unique mutating spaces that are created by the internationaly known summer festivals.
From 15th of December 2011 to 2nd of February 2012.
designed by Jean Beaudoin (www.ijb.ca) and Erick Villeneuve (www.novalux.com ); produced by Novalux (www.novalux.com).
