The installation of red and blue luminous cables is located 9 m above the ground, creating the illusion of a giant iris floating in space. While the red and blue RGB strings define the radial grooves, several vertically placed luminous bulbs and spheres determine the typical spots, wrinkles and other alterations of the iris.
Iris by Ben Busche / Brut Deluxe. Photograph by Miguel de Guzmán / Rocío Romero.
Iris by Ben Busche / Brut Deluxe. Photograph by Miguel de Guzmán / Rocío Romero.
Project description by Brut Deluxe / Ben Busche
IRIS is a site-specific design commissioned by the city of Madrid for Plaza Canalejas, a perfectly round urban square with a diameter of 50 m in the city centre of Madrid.
At 9 m above the ground, the mesh of concentric red and blue light rope creates the illusion of a giant iris floating in space. The installation can be understood either as a close-up or vice versa, like the image of a distant galaxy. While the red and blue RGB ropes define the radial grooves, various vertically placed light bulbs and light spheres determine the typical freckles, wrinkles and other disturbances in the iris.
The installation extends over 2000 m². The red and blue LED light rope has a total length of 2 km. The two spheres with a diameter of 1m constantly change colour and are illuminated by 1,800 RGB LEDs each. A total of 102,600 LEDs are installed in all the lighting elements. The energy consumption of the entire installation is only 2.1kW/h.
