Inauguration of "Louvre Abu Dhabi"
| Client: | Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) |
| Commissioned by: | Jack Morton Worldwide |
| Date: | 8th November and 11th to 14th November 2017 |
| Location: | Louvre, Abu Dhabi, UAE |
| Services: | Lighting, Rigging, Event-IT |
| Project Manager: | Christian Eberlein |
| Branch Office: | Dubai |
| Special Features: |
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The opening of the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi was celebrated for a whole week with a series of top-class events attended by guests invited by the heads of state of France and the Emirates. Jack Morton Worldwide commissioned us to implement the sophisticated lighting concept for the celebrations. The "Rain of Light" effect was created by Jean Nouvel, who was also the architect behind the impressive museum on "Saadiyat Island". Nouvel also placed particular importance on light for the 55 cubist building elements.
Our lighting designer Kris Collier was able to present the effect in advance down to the smallest detail using the "Wysiwyg" planning and visualisation tool, thus giving our client a perfect impression of what to expect at the show to mark the opening. Well over 500 lights were used – 300 alone for the "Rain of Light" effect. We opted for various moving lights (Profile), which we balanced out to perfection and installed between the cladding and the construction of the unique dome roof. They made the light from the spotlights look like sunbeams penetrating the roof. In line with the museum's clear-cut design and lighting concept, we only used pure white light to ensure a homogeneous atmosphere in terms of the colours used.
We protected the lights with special covers to ensure that the equipment worked without a hitch throughout the whole period despite being so close to the sea. These covers inflate themselves to provide protection against the saline sea spray and other influences, while also providing additional cooling with their fans.
In addition to the sophisticated lighting, we were also responsible for the rigging inside the dome, thus providing the infrastructure for other technical systems used in the show. The size of the project and the number of companies involved necessitated an IT network that was powerful enough to ensure trouble-free communication – this was planned and realised by our office in Dubai in collaboration with the branches in Munich and Dresden.
Photos: Ralph Larmann
