The light installations of the French artist Yann Kersale exude a creative vitality and spirit of provocation that has captured the enthusiasm of spectators across the world. A Briton by descent Kersale was born in Paris in 1955 and developed his interest in experimental lighting while studying at the School of Fine Arts in Quimper, Brittany. His first commission in 1983 was a lighting concept for the Eiffel Tower, with which he convinced his clients that a metal architectural structure could indeed be lighted from the inside. Since then the creative accomplishments of his innovative lighting design have become internationally renowned. From the Sony Center in Berlin to the Lyon opera, his light installations enhance buildings and landscapes all over the world. He has worked together with, among others, Helmut Jahn, Jean Nouvel, Coop Himmel(b)lau, Paul Andreu and Dominique Perrault.

The light installations of the French artist Yann Kersale exude a creative vitality and spirit of provocation that has captured the enthusiasm of spectators across the world. A Briton by descent Kersale was born in Paris in 1955 and developed his interest in experimental lighting while studying at the School of Fine Arts in Quimper, Brittany. His first commission in 1983 was a lighting concept for the Eiffel Tower, with which he convinced his clients that a metal architectural structure could indeed be lighted from the inside. Since then the creative accomplishments of his innovative lighting design have become internationally renowned. From the Sony Center in Berlin to the Lyon opera, his light installations enhance buildings and landscapes all over the world. He has worked together with, among others, Helmut Jahn, Jean Nouvel, Coop Himmel(b)lau, Paul Andreu and Dominique Perrault. This publication provides an unparalleled comprehensive overview of his work, both permanent and temporary installations, in which this artist of the night defamiliarizes our way of regarding a monument or city and paints them in a different light.

Les mises en lumiere de rartiste frangais Yann Kersale traduisent une vitalite creatrice et un esprit provocateur qui ont suscite I’enthousiasme de nombreux spectateurs a travers le monde. Ne en 1955 a Paris dans une famille bretonne, Kersale developpe un interet pour les installations de lumiere experimentales durant ses etudes a I’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Quimper. Sa premiere commande en 1983 est un prototype de la mise en lumiere de la Tour Eiffel; il demontre alors a ses clients que I’architecture metallique peut etre eclairee de I’interieur. Des Iors, ses concepts novateurs sont vite reconnus sur le plan international. Du Sony Center a Berlin a I’Opera de Lyon, ses mises en lumiere mettent en valeur betiments et paysages darts le monde entier. Kersale a collabore, entre autres, avec Helmut Jahn, Jean Nouvel, Coop Himmel(b)lau, Paul Andreu et Dominique Perrault.Ce livre donne une vision detaillee et unique de I’oeuvre de Kersale, des installations perennes et ephemeres dans lesquelles cet artiste de la nuit revolutionne notre maniere de regarder un monument, une ville en les faisant apparaitre sous un jour different.

La nuit des contrastes

A Night of Contrasts

Jean-Paul Curnier, Henri-Pierre Jeudy

Au risque de la liberte

At the Risk of Freedom

Entretien avec / Talks with Monique Sicard

Expeditions

In situ

Architecture

Objets-lumiere

Cabinet de curiosites

Chronologie/ Chronology

Bibliographie / Bibliography