Light – Space Pulsations

The Mishkan Museum of Art Ein Harod, is a hidden gem in a little kibbutz in north of Israel. Artists and Architects visit the museum to experience the unique naturally-lighted spaces. The building was designed by a talented architect, Shmuel Bickels in three phases during 10 years, which allowed a unique process of developing novel light – spaces. The big hall, the gallery for Israeli painting, is considered as the best venue to exhibit paintings in Israel, due to the supreme light quality. Furthermore, this space has found a honorable place in the history of 20th century museum architecture, since it inspired the influential Italian architect, Renzo Piano with his De Menil Gallery design, one of the peak examples of 20th century museum architecture.

Light-Space Pulsations from david behar perahia on Vimeo.

This project comes to celebrate and challenge the uniqueness of the big hall’s daylight architecture, by creating a mediated responsive space, where the presence of the visitors trigger unique light-space performances. As the visitors enter the darken space, the dynamic daylight appearance stimulates an exploration of the large space (22x11x6 meters). Light and the natural sound of a water drip establish three overlapping spaces within the big hall, each with its unique dynamic quality. Two sculptural curved columns dialogue with both the existing columns and the curvature of the light funnels, a gesture that focus attention on the inspiring architectural language. Top light louvers control and pour in natural light in tamed and magical sequences, pulsating, orchestrating and stimulating a rich sensory experience. Occasionally light phenomena as camera-obscura appears on the walls, bringing in the physical presence of the sky and the moving clouds. The work is facilitated by sensors, motors and control units which allows both random visitor interactions and artistically defined light-space choreographies.