Detour

La Gaîté Lyrique inaugurates an entirely reconfigured space: the first-floor exhibition area transforms into an astonishing luminous and sonic forest with the appearance of an optical illusion. The first guest of the program, the French collective Visual System, transports us to the heart of a forest with geometric abstraction, regenerating new perceptions.

From its slender and split totem trunks, soft electroluminescent sources, undulating colored beams, and a grand orchestra of sounds emanate, all obeying secret harmonic consonances. Enveloped on all sides under its sun-dappled and shadowed sound vault, without bearings and without a fixed point of view, we are everywhere at its center and blend right into it, where everything looks the same. In a poetic exploration of space, the kinetic wandering piece Détour reverses perspectives and comes to life: it reaches out to us, draws us in, rocks us, and carries us. Does it remind us of the importance of moving forward to emerge from the depths of these places whose contours we don't always grasp, allowing the inevitable unexpected to come?

Continuing its exploration of post-Internet cultures, La Gaîté Lyrique inaugurates an artistic program dedicated to new writings and immersive experiences. In the image-driven society in which we live, these innovative narrative forms, engaging all our senses, deserve special attention. This new program takes shape on the first floor of La Gaîté Lyrique. The entire floor is now dedicated to discovering the creative potentials linked to recent developments in immersion and interaction technologies.

In Détour, the visitor, completely free in their movements, discovers sixteen totems, each 2.50 meters high, striped with LEDs. Inspired by abstract pictorial sculptures, these luminous monoliths are erected within a darkened space. They animate and respond to the rhythm of a sound creation that guides us through the meanders of a new ecosystem, opening a dialogue between humans, nature, and machines. Sounds and lights awaken in tandem. As the journey progresses, the sonic perception intensifies. The light is soft and indirect. The music, created by composers Thomas Vaquié and Alexandre Bouvier, is enveloping. Détour invites one to get lost in a morphing of sound and visual landscapes, within a dreamlike forest regenerating new perceptions and harboring unknown worlds.

Two concerts were performed inside the installation in Paris, Détour Live on 21 October 2021 and Détour en musique on 3 March 2022.