Anthony McCall : Sculpting Light

Press release

Installation "Anthony McCall: Lumière" — Anthony McCall, installation view, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, New York, 2018. Photo by Dan Bradica. Image courtesy Pioneer Works.

As part of Ircam’s iconic ManiFeste Festival, Centre Pompidou invites Anthony McCall to take over the institution’s projection space in Paris for a project combining light sculptures and contemporary musical creation.

For this multidisciplinary proposal—where each human presence actively contributes to the emergence of a shared sensory experience—four of McCall’s light works unfold through time and space: Breath (2004), Breath (III) (2005), You and I (II) (2010), and Skirt (I) (2010).

These “solid light” sculptures redefine the very act of projection, transforming light into a material in its own right. Starting from a simple line projected into a smoke-filled room, the artist brings to life tangible volumes of light: geometric forms that slowly unfold. These works offer viewers a unique experience that breaks with the conventions of cinema. Here, no stillness is required. The audience is invited to move, interact with the beams, and observe the forms as they materialize from different angles.

In resonance with Anthony McCall’s installations, a musical program designed as a spatial and temporal experience will be presented. Ircam’s Projection Space will hosts performances of Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel (1971), a seminal figure in New York experimental music—performed by the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart—and Does Spring Hide Its Joy by composer Kali Malone, in dialogue with Stephen O’Malley’s guitar and Lucy Railton’s cello.

A major figure in contemporary art, Anthony McCall has been developing a radical and profoundly innovative body of work since the early 1970s, situated at the intersection of cinema, sculpture, and installation. Since the early 2000s, McCall has extended this research through large-scale digital devices. His works deepen the relationship between light, time, movement, and perception, offering the public environments of rare intensity.

About the ManiFeste Festival
An iconic festival from Ircam (Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music), ManiFeste is a major international event dedicated to musical creation and hybrid artistic forms. Each year, it brings together composers, performers, and artists from around the world for projects combining contemporary and electronic music, visual arts, and live performance. Concerts and performances take place in emblematic Parisian venues—Ircam, Centquatre-Paris, Cité de la Musique, Maison de la Radio et de la Musique—establishing ManiFeste as an essential platform for artistic innovation.

Curated by
Jonathan Pouthier, Curatorial assistant, film collection, Musée national d’art moderne − Centre Pompidou