Charles Pétillon, a French artist, is widely known for photographing balloons in different locations and positions. Though his pieces typically sit in lifeless clusters, on August 27, he brought his work to life in London’s Convent Garden Market Building, in a massive piece called “Heartbeat.”
The juxtaposition of this modern piece resting in the Market Building, a 19th century monument, seems almost surreal: a giant cloud, created with 100,000 balloons, floating from the ceiling. “This space is huge. There were 300 kg of balloons—1000 cubic meters,” said the artist in a CNN interview, “We needed 20 people to inflate them over five days, and four nights to hang them. ”
A common question answered by Pétillon regarded the name of the piece – ”Heartbeat.” During a CNN interview, he explained that the name is the product of his desire to represent the Market Building, a central location in London, as “the beating heart of this area.” His intention was to remind the public of that and to create a link between the past and the present of the space. He concluded, “Creating a huge heart was the best way to show that.”
