Nuit Blanche Arts Festival - Paris 2005 Altuglas® Installation

The Mechanical Field Installation

Arkema and subsidiary Altuglas International are patrons of the artist Vincent Leroy, whose Mechanical Field installation will be exhibited in Maurice Prost Park, on the grounds of Hôpital de la Pitié Salpêtrière, during the fourth annual Nuit Blanche Arts Festival organized by the City of Paris next October 1. Mechanical Field is a “lawn” of 2,000 1.5-meter “blades” of Altuglas® grass, covering 2,000 square meters.

 

Altuglas International is the world’s leading supplier of PMMA, also known as acrylic glass. Arkema markets its PMMA under the brands Altuglas® in Europe and Asia and Plexiglas® in North America.

 

Altuglas® is widely used in architecture and urban planning (noise barriers, street furniture) and design (store fixtures, furniture, POP displays) for its transparency, excellent light diffusion, UV and scratch resistance, and insulating and soundproofing properties.

 

Vincent Leroy chose fluorescent green Altuglas® for his Mechanical Field, on display in the Salpetrière garden.

 

The Artist

Born in Avranches in 1968, Vincent Leroy lives and works in Paris. His sculptures are the result of extensive research on kinetics and the obliteration of shapes, which is very closely tied to science and technology. Here’s what Vincent Leroy has to say about Mechanical Field: “I wanted to create something totally different for the people who walk through the hospital grounds every day, create an event that would change the usual landscape. It’s an artificial, verdant, fluorescent field. I wanted to construct something that would make people passing by the garden stop and look. You can’t miss it. You can go inside it. It will be shake people up, evoke a poetic, personal response. I use Altuglas® a lot. I like its luminous, fluorescent aspect. It’s often used for signs. I’m diverting it to another use, by capitalizing on its basic properties.”