NielsBlog

Designboom:

‘beyond infinity’, a multisensory installation by french artist and theorist serge salat, interweaves mirrors, light, music, 
and fractal art in an architecture that conflates visitors’ perceptions of space. sponsored by buick cars and usable during the events
as a vehicle showroom, the work is installed at shanghai’s westgate mall from september 16th through 18th, 2011.

measuring 12.45 by 10.8 meters at a height of 3.8 meters, the structure is completely closed, 
composed of a steel infrastructure with honeycomb aluminum panels covered in mirrors. 
internally, the space is designed around the trigram of the yi king, utilizing spatial techniques 
traditional of suzhou gardens as a means of framing the visitor experience as a ‘mystical journey’ 
through abstracted chinese courtyards. painted wooden grids and steps lend additional structure, 
while the fractal objects are composed of wooden frames covered with punched aluminum anodized panels.

inside the installation, as music plays, the lighting pulses and shifts as visitors move through a series of room-like spaces 
whose dimensions are almost indiscernible as a result of the infinite reflections cast by the mirrors. on a 9-channel system, 
the lighting varies from ultraviolet blue to white, traversing each minute a complete cycle that recreates the effects of dawn 
through sunset and night. visitors pass first through a blue lattice grid with a darkened section monikered the ‘vertical infinite fault’ 
that seems to eliminate the space where they walk.