RGB pavilion
Red Green Blue pavilion

Location

Palais des festivals,
La Croisette, Cannes, France

Year of conception:
phase1: 1999 study
phase2: realisation study

Commissioner
Cannes, film festival organization / Mitic Club _ Cannes, France
Budget: 200.000 Euro
Status: _ Not realised

Concepts:

-> colourspace
-> hyersurface
-> screenography

Context

The 75 m² pavilion was conceived for the 'Festival international du film de Cannes'. In addition to being

the main entrance of the festival located right in front of the famous staircase the pavilion should express a new relation to motion image extending the frontal setting of the cinema, namely the 'black box' into a complete visual experience.

The outer shell of the pavilion is a transparent plastic material fixed on a lightweight steel construction.The inner membrane is conceived as a 'blob space', shaped according to the cone of video projectors, and has been planned as a semi-transparent 'un-tainted' Mylar mirror. The ground level of the pavilion hosts a reception and ticket desk and is divided into two parts by the crossing circulation axis. This division is also present in the projected image to 'glue' the two projection cones together, having their focal points on the two extremes of the pavilion while covering the rest in a blurry and deformed projection.

The pavilion has two doors allowing the flow of visitors through the pavilion. One door opens vertically, serving as a sign, while the other opens horizontally, serving as a visitor's guide.

During daytime the inner membrane operates as a light protection filter reflecting the outer context in the form of an anamorphic mirror play while offering at the same time the possibility of projecting moving images in the inner space of the pavilion. During the day the taintless mirror produces its most astonishing effect on dark projection areas where the visitor suddenly can see through the sheet while seeing simultaneously projected images. This effect exploits the specificity of the semi-transparent mirror to become, depending on the difference in light intensities between the inside projection and the outside luminosity, either transparent or reflective. The inner membrane thus operates as an enormous 'Glasstron ' merging the projected images with the surrounding outside context.

In the evening, when the projector's light becomes stronger than the environmental light, the membrane

turns into a complete screen also visible from the outside. In this manner the 'blob' shape of the inner membrane not only envelopes the visitor unifying ground, walls and ceiling into one single and continuous form but also fuses the different characteristics of the Mylar material: reflection, transparency, shadows and projection, into one single visual experience.

Between the two membranes, RGB lamps fill this in-between space with red, green and blue light, underlining and recalling the pavilion concept and its astonishing effects as being the one of light.

The entire device therefore works on the contrast and intensity of light in order to erase the traditional relation between the viewer and the screen, the so-called 'black box' effect, transforming the space into a complex visual play, between cinema and architecture.