‘Jean Paul Gaultier’, an exhibition created by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Jean Paul Gaultier himself, has travelled the world and wowed nearly 1.5 million visitors since its kick-off in 2011. Today, 1 April, the Grand Palais welcomes the exhibit, which features an installation designed specifically for this venue. “Working closely with the curators at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the team at the Grand Palais, we developed a concept to convert the Escalier des arts, a staircase located in between the first and second floors of the museum, into ‘The Staircase of the Muses’,” explains Eric Fournier, partner and executive producer at Moment Factory. “Once at the top of the stairs, visitors trigger a camera that takes a snapshot of their silhouette. These images then form part of a generative design, featuring Gaultier motifs and palettes. The resulting video composition is projected on the large-scale backdrop of the staircase landing. Always in flux, the projection runs continuously in real time, remixing imagery from past visitors with new colors and motifs to form original visuals throughout the four months of the exhibition.” 

High brightness and smart content management 
The technology behind the set-up is a super-bright Barco HDW-W20 projector and an advanced media server that was co-developed by Moment Factory and Barco. Moment Factory has been using Barco projectors for several prestigious events, like the 2012 and 2014 Super Bowls. In 2014, they made an agreement with Barco to explore business opportunities and market their software suite for multimedia content management together. The scalable media server, which integrates expertise from both Moment Factory and Barco, supports connectivity with various sensors and input, allowing users to deploy content onto surfaces of almost any shape or size with a sophisticated video mapping. It’s been used in many projects, including large-scale permanent installations at, for example, Los Angeles International Airport. “Though fantastic already, the set-up at the Grand Palais only shows a tiny fraction of what the full-blown system can do,” adds Eric Fournier. 

Creating memorable experiences 
Visitors to the exhibition who climb the ‘Staircase of the Muses’ will be encouraged to share their experience via social media. “Jean Paul Gaultier’ really is the biggest fashion exhibition ever. Looking at the success it has had at other locations, from Canada and the US through to Australia, this is bound to be a hit in Paris too,” added Wim Buyens, Barco’s Head of Entertainment. “We’re thrilled to work together with Moment Factory, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Grand Palais to demonstrate how we can help create memorable experiences in any entertainment environment.” 

‘Jean Paul Gaultier’ is organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Réunion des musées nationaux - Grand Palais and the Paris Maison Jean Paul Gaultier. The exhibition runs from 1 April to 3 August at the Grand Palais, Paris.