Working closely with French artist Charles Pétillon, the technical installation of his largest creation yet in the ‘Invasions’ series was delivered for Covent Garden’s historic Market Building, over 100,000 cold air-filled balloons suspended entirely above the space. Every wire was engineered so that not a single balloon touched the building’s surfaces, the whole 54-metre-long structure held in place purely by the market’s own metalwork. Visitors found themselves pausing beneath it, drawn upward into a piece that felt alive, its gentle pulsing light breathing in slow rhythm above the everyday bustle below.
COVENT GARDEN
Heartbeat by Charles Pétillon, London
A cloud that seemed to breathe
For a month, Pétillon’s first live UK project quietly transformed the market’s south hall, its slow, pulsing glow inviting visitors to stop, look up and simply take a moment amid the everyday rush.
"With Heartbeat I want to represent the Market Building as the beating heart of this area – connecting its past with the present day to allow visitors to re-examine its role at the heart of London's life"
