Designboom_ On the occasion of Nuit Blanche 2023, Paris plays host to RINGdeLUXE, a bold in situ installation enveloping the iconic Léopold-Sédar-Senghor footbridge. Realized by the artistic duo Plastique Fantastique, this monumental ringed artwork captures the imagination of its observers with its visually striking and mechanically complex structural design.

Lightweight and reflective, the installation acts as both a connection and a boundary. It exudes a profound reverence for public space, seeking to alter our perception of the environment and evoke unique multi-sensory experiences. In this way, it breathes new life into the city, revealing the previously unseen and heightening the senses of all who encounter it.

This strategic placement of the ringed installation around the Léopold-Sédar-Senghor footbridge serves a dual purpose, symbolically connecting the two shores of the city while also embodying the inseparable relationship between Paris, its river, and its inhabitants. As the night approaches, RINGdeLUXE comes alive, awakening the city’s personifications, Parisian allegories, and the river, uniting them as divine entities in the darkness.

Founded in 1999, Plastique Fantastique is an artist duo based in Berlin, composed of Marco Canevacci and Yena Young. The creators were inspired by the unique circumstances that made the city a laboratory for temporary spaces. Blending their roles as architects and artists, they seek to create visually striking and mechanically complex sculptural works that harness the energy of the air and evoke a captivating sense of movement and fluidity. Their large-scale installations dialogue between the materiality of architecture and the ephemerality of air. In many ways they are very simple structures: skins that separate and connect. Always lightweight, their installations refer to the idea of transforming, activating, and sharing public space to modify our perception of the environment and provoke unique multi-sensory experiences. In doing so, they breathe new life into the city and make the invisible visible.