Artist Emmanuelle Moureaux has unveiled a new permanent art installation in France. Situated in Paris’ largest office building, it was conceived as a beam of light and colors that symbolizes the diversity of people and moments of life. Cascading down seven floors in the main atrium, TIMELINE is the 47th work in Moureaux’s celebrated 100 colors series.
This prismatic piece is also the first permanent installation from the series in France. It’s formed from 3,200 numbers that are years stacked on top of themselves. The work begins at the bottom, in white, with what was then the current year—2023. From there, we zoom toward the future, with years expressed in 100 gradations representing the flow of time.
Anchored in a fixed position, this column of numbers and colors appears as a real light beam even when viewed from a distance.
“I want people to see colors not with their eyes, but feel colors with their entire body, their senses,” shares Moureaux. “I use colors as three-dimensional elements, like layers, in order to create spaces, not as a finishing touch applied to surfaces at the end of the creation process.”
Fittingly named Lumière, which means “light,” the building is the perfect setting for Moureaux’s piece. The Tokyo-based artist is also an architect and was inspired by the space’s clean, open interiors. The atrium’s incredible glass roof sparked the idea to create this colorful beam of light.
Now that TIMELINE is installed, it can bring joy to the thousands of workers who pass through there each day.
TIMELINE is a new site-specific installation by Emmanuelle Moureaux in Paris’ largest office building.
The cascade of colorful numbers starts with 2023 at the bottom and zooms to the ceiling with future years in 100 different hues.
The art installation is a symbolic beam of light that flows from the atrium’s glass ceiling.
“I want people to see colors not with their eyes, but feel colors with their entire body, their senses.”
