BOURRASQUE BY PAUL COCKSEDGE STUDIO

One of Frances biggest cultural events, La Fete des Lumires
features 80 installations showcasing new developments
in lighting and related technologies and attracts 4 million visitors annually from 8-11 December.
At Paul Cocksedge Studio we knew we had to come up with something wondrous and magical to do justice to this ancient and prestigious lighting festival.

The concept was that of a ream of paper scattering in a gust of wind, soaring high into the black winter night, every sheet glowing bright, against the exquisite backdrop of the Hotel de Ville…
In both scale and technique, it was an ambitious project. measures 25 metres in length and reaches over 15 metres at its highest point. The 200 A3-sized sheets are made from electroluminescent (EL) material, the double-sided sheets having been individually moulded by hand in London, and then assembled on site in a structure of nylon wire barely visible to the human eye
In this piece he has combined his interest in the nature and morphology of paper with his long-term fascination with light to create the illusion of paper scattered
in a gust of wind. It was certainly a challenge to erect it so that the supporting structure almost disappeared from view but the end result was even more poetic and elegant than we could have wished for. It became the centrepiece for the festival and the Mayor of Lyon chose this installation with which to open the event.
Entry into the Festival of Light was by official tender.The festival director had seen a project from the designer in Milan, Italy and encouraged us to participate. Different sites in the city have different briefs and budgets: we chose the beautiful Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) as the perfect backdrop. The brief was that the piece had to make use of new lighting technology, be magical and wondrous, and also should encourage visitors to circulate and walk through the Hotel de Ville square, rather than remain stationary.