This 17-metre luminous whale spotted in downtown Montreal invites spectators to an extent

Weighing in at a whopping 4.5tonnes, a 17-metresteelwhale began lighting up downtown Montreal this week as part the 12th edition of Luminothrapie, a luminous art walk in the Quartier des Spectacles.

Erected in the Place des Festivals as this year's major installation,Echoes: A Voice From Uncharted Waters is an interactive sound and lightinstallation bymultidisciplinary artist Mathias Gmachlthat asks us to consider the impact of our everyday activities on nature and the environment.

During the evening, it emits a warm, welcoming glow and a calmingunderwater soundscape, made from real whale sounds and other ocean noises, the marine mammal invites people to look and listen closely but not too close.

If onlookers breach an invisible perimeter around the structure, the whale's lights dim and the soundtrack fades until a comfortable distance between whale and watcher is restored. This is meant to show what happens when human activities continue to take away spacefor other life on Earth to survive.

"I came up with the idea to bring endangered animals to the city and create a bit of a space for people to think about how we want our future to look like," saidGmachl, who visited Montreal this week for the unveiling of his creation.

"I think it's sort of a simple way to communicate to people what it actually means if things become extinct:they fall silent, they disappear."

WhenGmachl began working on the installation, which won its coveted spotduring this year's multidisciplinarypublic art competition held by the Quartier des Spectacles, he knew he wanted tomodel the structure after a one-year-old blue whale.

"It's a critical time in a whale's life, it's when they separate from their mother and start to venture out on their own."

While the structure weighs five tons, that's only a fraction of the weightof a live whale this size."It would weigh about three times as much," the artist said.

The structure is co-produced in collaboration with MuseumsQuartier in Vienna, Austria, andLugano Arte e Cultura in Lugano, Switzerland,where the whale first made its debut. Here in Montreal, it's poised tostick around until Feb. 6.

Gmachl hopes his installation sparks a meaningful conversation about the climate crisis.

"I thought a lot about the situation we are in with lots of animals, life disappearing from the planet, and I wanted to talk about this in a way that's inviting and engaging."

Four other colourful Luminothrapie installations are open from Dec. 2, 2021 to Feb.27, 2022.

Visitors will be able to stroll between interactive and contemplative works, such asImpulse,made up of large, illuminated seesawsthat glow and vary in tone and intensity as you move them;Entre les rangs, an installation made up of thousands of luminous, flexible stems designed to evoke fields of wheat swaying in the wind;Iceberg, a tunnel of illuminated metal arches that each make a particular sound to mimic water dropletsas ice melts; andNova, a video projection inspired by the motion of water that presents abstract images linked to Montreal's rivers.

Lastly, withCur dansant,the Quartier des Spectacles becomes a dance floorfor five minutes every evening at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.

The 12th edition ofLuminothrapieat the Quartier des Spectacles opened Dec. 2, 2021and ends Feb. 27, 2022.It runs from noon to 10p.m. Monday to Thursdayand noon to 11p.m. Friday to Sunday. Visiting the installations is free.