More than 60 Clay Paky Mythos fixtures are lighting the Tree of Life sculpture for the Milan Expo 2015, in a stunning light show conceived by renowned lighting designer Koert Vermeulen of ACT Lighting Design.
Vermeulen worked alongside creative director Marco Balich of Balich Worldwide Shows and architect Florian Boje from Gio Forma Architect for the project, specifying the Clay Paky fixtures from rental house Agorà. Located on the Expo site in front of the Italian Pavilion, The Tree of Life serves as a centrepiece and meeting place throughout the six-month event, with the light show repeated twice daily to entertain visitors.
“The ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life’ theme of the Expo is reflected in the light show,” explained Vermeulen. “It evokes the relationship between man and nature and the Mythos play a particularly predominant role. This is where their strong beam functions, incredible speed and purity of the open white they produce come into play. Their colour mixing is also fantastic, allowing me to achieve a wonderfully vibrant red which I used for accent colour.”
Vermeulen positioned the Mythos in three areas: around the Lake Arena, in which the Tree of Life is reflected, at the base of the architectural structure and at the top where they produce an impressive aerial display.
The fixtures are housed inside Clay Paky IGLOOS, sturdy enclosures moulded from UV-resistant transparent polycarbonate. These are designed to ensure flawless projection without loss of light or image distortion, and offer complete protection against rain and humidity while maintaining a perfect working temperature for the units.
The IGLOOS work for both permanent and temporary installations. Their flexible mounting system allows orientation in any position – including on the ground and hung upside down from the Tree – without comprising their high IP rating.
“As the Tree of Life plays such a significant part at the Expo, we knew we needed powerful fixtures that would produce fantastic effects,” explained Vermeulen. “We were originally going to use the SuperSharpy but changed to the Mythos on recommendation from Clay Paky. We were excited by the idea of a hybrid fixture with an impressive zoom and as I have over 20 years’ experience dealing with Clay Paky I was confident it’d be the right tool to achieve the looks I wanted.”
The Milan Expo 2015 began on 1 May and runs until 31 October. This is the second time Milan has hosted the exposition, the first being the Milan International of 1906.
Picture: © 2015 Balich Worldwide Shows – ACT lighting design – photo by Luigi Caterino
