Cube Piano was created by French artist Cyril Lancelin specifically for HKRI Taikoo Hui. Cyril Lancelin creates hybrid works that combine sculptures, immersive installations, drawings, virtual experiences, and videos to create links between the physical and the fictional. He connects architecture and the human body through a plastic vocabulary based on primitive geometry, the every day and the functional, the perennial and the ephemeral, science and nature. He began his career in Paris and Los Angeles, working for architects and artists, using 3D modeling techniques and virtual images he developed in the 1990s. He investigates tridimensional matter using Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.
He has designed a textured monumental immersive artwork where a Piano will be accessible following the original idea ‘Play Me; I am Yours’ by the artist Luke Jerram. Black and white stripes are symbols of piano keyboards emerging from the worktop: blue and purple squares, like notes soaring up towards the sky.
Cube Piano is a dedication to the massive type of musicians, and to the creativity hidden in everyone. In the inflatable structure similar to an open-air building, beginners or expert pianists, with or without score, alone, in pairs, are invited to sit behind the upright piano. In the short-lived auditorium, anonymous consumers are in the spotlight.
The structure is designed as an assembly of windows on the city but also the newly created “performance hall.” The exploration of the work will transport the visitor into an imaginary world. The textures by their optical illusions guide the walker in a universe punctuated by the openings and the play of lights.
The music is in the air; it winds between the curves of the work. Come and play with your fingertips, with two or four hands: play standing up, sing, dance, and clap. And as night falls, the ephemeral musical palace lights up and brightly colors the space. The sculpture is a Place of life, intangible and artistic exchanges. In CUBE PIANO, time is suspended, images are textured, and good memories are engraved.
Project Info
Artist: Cyril Lancelin
Site: HKRI Taikoo Hui, Shanghai
Date: june-july 2023
Client: HKRI Taikoo Hui, Shanghai
Production: Ivent China
Photos: HKRI Taikoo Hui, Shanghai
Renders: Cyril Lancelin
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