French designer and light artist, Benoit Lalloz creates lights and lighted objects that contain elements of art, design, science and technology.

French designer and light artist Benoit Lalloz creates lights and lighted objects that contain elements of art, design, science, and technology. He works for leading international brands, as well as renowned museums.

I started with designing lights for the theatre and opera, then worked on museum lighting, as well as artwork lighting, and finally began creating works of art where the light was the essence of the work. All of these light designs, most of which were collaborative works, made liberal use of color.

In September 2002, for the Festival de la Création Numérique, I was invited to do the lighting at Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris.

This is how my work was described: “Benoit Lalloz’s lighting design accompanies this sensitive and semantic journey with deconstructed visual elements that influence the perception of space and its various elements.”

My creative process was to diminish the white halogen light, leaving only a “grey” light that erased all colour from the space except that emitted by the lighted works. It was about diminishing and removing shapes, materials, and as many visual indicators from this architecture as possible.

This radically changed the visual appearance of the Grande Halle de la Villette, which made a very strong impact. My understanding of what white light could add or subtract from the idea of “appearance” was transformed. This experience was a turning point that revealed a new perspective: exploring the impoverishment or enrichment of white light.

Now I work on creating white light constructions/deconstructions. I search for different “souls” for subtle nuances. Creating an understanding of white light, generating a visual spirit.

The Inuit have more than a dozen different words to describe shades of white. In the same way, there is not just one white light but many levels of whiteness within the light. At its core, my process is to explore this multiplicity by experimenting with deconstructing and reconstructing these levels.