After Tokyo, Dubai, New York and dozens of other cities in around thirty countries, Laval is in turn welcoming an extraordinary “work-event”: Museum of the Moona striking replica of the Moon with a diameter of seven meters, will be suspended for four days above the Nature Center lake.
The large luminous ball, created from NASA images, will be the main attraction of the Laval park throughout the long Thanksgiving holiday. This work by British artist Luke Jerram has a realism that apparently arouses great emotions. Each centimeter of the sculpture represents five kilometers of the lunar surface.
“It’s truly an event-work,” says Geneviève Goyer-Ouimette, initiator of the project and curator of the City of Laval’s art collection. More than 20 million spectators have seen the traveling work since its inauguration in 2016 in Kendal, England.
There’s something absolutely magical about bringing the Moon close to us
“There is something absolutely magical about bringing the Moon close to us,” she adds. This sphere, a sort of inflated balloon suspended by a crane, will be reflected in the lake at the Laval Nature Center. It will be possible to approach it by renting a boat. We will even see the hidden side of the Moon.
Logistics challenge
Bringing this installation to Laval required considerable logistical efforts, explains Geneviève Goyer-Ouimette. “It’s not like hanging a picture on a wall,” she says.
A technician from Luke Jerram’s team accompanies the work at all times. He gives precise instructions – but kept secret – on how to hang the object. The City of Laval even hired its own technical manager to coordinate the installation of the work and the four-day event.
The crane operator must be present on site at all times, day and night, during the long weekend. A team will also ensure that the work is protected throughout the event. A technical quote also governs the packaging and transport of this “moon”, which travels deflated, specifies Geneviève Goyer-Ouimette.
The biggest part of the bill is not the rental of the work, but all the logistics surrounding the installation, according to the project manager — who did not disclose the company’s cost.
Luke Jerram has a sense of spectacle, literally: at least five replicas of this illuminated moon are circulating at the same time all over the world, in addition to those acquired by museums (including the Canadian Museum of Nature, in Ottawa), cites memory Geneviève Goyer-Ouimette. The Palestinian refugee camp of Aida, in the West Bank, also welcomed Museum of the Moon last month.
Family activities
A soundtrack by composer Dan Jones will accompany spectators. Astronaut conversations, the sound of a rocket taking off and a snippet of John F. Kennedy’s speech promising, in the 1960s, that “within a decade, the United States will send a man to the Moon and that he will come back alive” are also part of the show.
A series of activities will accompany the installation of this work at the Nature Center. Admission is free and no reservations are required.
The Cosmodôme and the Laval Amateur Astronomers Club will offer entertainment and telescope observation activities at the Jean-Marc-Richard astronomical observatory. Artist Bettina Forget will hold a lunar crater drawing workshop. The public will also be able to take a short visit with a mediator to learn more about the artist Luke Jerram and observe scientific and cultural lunar phenomena linked to the work.