Viral/Vital Energy 2020 is a monumental multimedia installation project that combines an algorithmic created sculpture by the artist Leonel Moura, a generative projection by the artist Miguel Chevalier and a music based on the breathing of the composer Jacopo Baboni Schilingi. The artists have been heavily influnced by the appearance of microorganisms and driven by their shared interest in science, they have collaborated in order to create a virus-like installation as a hymn to life.
Through striking visuals and dynamic sound, radiance and vivid colors, this multimedia installation is envisioned as an artwork that celebrate the victory of life.
The sculpture model, with its radiant shape, was created by an algorithm that, once given a 3D sphere, generates peaks and holes. The creative process is therefore essentially generative and not controlled. The sculpture is an inflatable 15 meters high, placed in the center of a water mirror 30 meters in diameter, reflecting and expanding the installation day and night. The sculpture that sometimes deflates slightly and inflates again is a symbol of the breath that sustains life.
Chevalier is gradually building up a database of 2d and 3d images, of diverse morphology of cells, viruses and bacteria. some of these images were conveyed by Olivier Schwartz, director of the department virus and immunity of Institute Pasteur, as part of the organoid program. the sculpture is enriched by an original musical work generated continually and in real-time by an algorithm that translates schilingi’s breathing into harmony and musical structures.
