The artist Bardula was asked by Parisian interior designers Gilles & Boissier to create a monumental kinetic light installation in the entrance of Moncler new flagship store at 650 Madison Avenue, at 59th Street, Manhattan, opened in October 2016.

“Solaris” is a symmetrical installation made of 24 gold metal blades 4 meters tall that face each other and expand geometrically to form a distorted sphere, creating a magnetic and solar space that we can step into.

Artist Bardula renovates Moncler New York flagship store's lighting with new lighting design. (All photos courtesy of Bardula)

Bardula explains: ‘The successive layers of gold and LED light produce a star effect and movement that follows the viewer. This volume represents the center of our immediate universe – the solar system – and takes the visitor to the heart of the ultimate star: the sun. The individual enters the center of the world, where radiates the golden light. The space opens up in response to the visitor, immersing him or her in a volume distorted by a mysterious force – his or her own.’

Visible from the street, this installation signals the identity that Gilles & Boissier are seeking for their concepts through the collaboration of artists. Here, on Madison Avenue in New York City, Bardula’s work invites passers-by to immerse themselves in a light experience and discover the universe around them.

The hallway of Moncler illuminates with new gold glow. A woman stands in the newly lit hallway with her head facing downwards.

It is the second time that interior designers Gilles & Boissier have asked Bardula to create a custom-made work of art for one of their projects. The first occasion, in 2015, was a series of installations on the theme of the Harcourt glass for the Hotel Baccarat in New York, across the street from MoMA, a project that won multiple awards.

Since 2004, Gilles & Boissier have imposed their style on a number of large-scale projects, recent examples of which include: the Baccarat Hotel New York, the Mandarin Oriental in Marrakech, the Four Seasons in Mexico City, Hakkasan Restaurants, the Café de l’Homme in Paris and many Moncler boutiques worldwide.

The interior design of the shop.

Gilles & Boissier regularly enlist the services of artists to transform the perception of the space with commissioned installations, transforming their entire projects into works of Art Total, a symbiosis of fashion, design, art and architecture.

The light featured in the installation Solaris comes from top-of-the-range LEDs designed by KKDC, whose gallery in passage Dauphine in Paris (6th arrondissement) hosted a solo exhibition of Bardula at the beginning of the year. Each metal blade, backlit along its edge by white LEDs at varying temperatures, corresponds to the precise aesthetic composition chosen by Bardula.

Light iQ, a London based lighting consultancy, brought its expertise to the technical programming of the lighting scenarios conceived by Bardula : undulating movements spreading from warm whites to cold whites and dancing infinitely into each other, changing at every moment the entire surrounding feeling.

Gerardo Olvera, Light iQ design director, has worked on a wide range of global high-end lifestyle projects incorporating residential, fine dining restaurants, world-class bars and clubs and luxury hospitality and retail.

A glimpse of the lighitng installation process.

Some of his iconic and award-winning projects include Hotel Puerta America (Madrid), Budakkan (New York), Mandarin Oriental Hotel (Barcelona), Hakkasan (Worldwide), Alexander Mc Queen (Worldwide) and Chiltern Firehouse (London).

The great technical complexity of Solaris, a monumental installation constructed in a marble alcove, called for the assistance of Michel Delarasse, a metal specialist, craftsman, engineer and art restorer, who, since 1972, has represented the epitome of French expertise. He has restored works of art of Yves Klein, Giacometti and Arman while producing work for artists such as Julio Le Parc, François Morellet and Joseph Beuys.