Attend the concert of a metal pianist guided by light, whose melody transforms the real world into an imaginary one, flooding the square with light and color until reality is forgotten. The music electrifies you and engulfs the square, while light creates a dialog between plants and stone. The imperturbable pianist continues his concert, and the piano notes fly away as a snowstorm swirls about.
Jean-Luc Hervé is trained in architectural lighting at the Institut Général des Techniques du Spectacle, before going on to create a number of lighting displays, both permanent and for festivals. He is the founder of Orpailleurs de Lumière, a collective of sound, light, image and video designers.
Creating permanent and temporary lighting for a range of urban and industrial buildings, Jean-Luc has been a regular participant at the Trophy of Lights in Marseille, since 2005. He designed the "Open at Night" light display at the Hôtel du Département for the 2008 Festival of Lights in Lyon, together with the fixed lighting of the Abbey of Saint Victor in Marseille.
Just as gold-diggers sift through kilos of earth looking for the nugget, the Orpailleurs de Lumière are artisans that tirelessly pursue their quest for the light – the one that revolutionizes our perception of the cityscape, revealing it in a new perspective. From the earliest stages of the creative process, they seek to mould the light show to a piece of music or, as they put it, ensure "the light shines on the musical score". In 2013, for example, their light provided the rhythm for the Grand Orchestre de Fourvière.