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Québec City's Giant Lampshades Make For An 'Art Gallery Floating In Space'

Even The Streetlights Are Cooler In Québec

Take a walk down Cartier Avenue in historic Québec City, and you may find yourself gazing up at an art gallery — in the sky.

Lightemotion, a Montreal-based lighting firm that illuminates interiors and exteriors around the world, has installed a series of giant lampshades in the provincial capital's Montcalm area.

The spectacular fixtures display images by Québecois artists Fernand Leduc and Alfred Pellan.

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Giant Lampshades Provide Urban Lighting in Quebec City

The artworks are lit up using LED strips and displayed on shades that are five feet high and eight feet across, according to a news release.

Lightemotion aimed to create a light display that would capture the "warmth of a neighbourhood life characterized by a strong community spirit." So it created an "art gallery floating in space" as part of a larger project that aims to light up major boulevards throughout the city.

The shades are intended to give the street the "cozy warmth of a residential interior."

"Our major challenge was to respect the soul of Cartier Avenue, while being bold enough to create a world-class project that would help make Québec City a true international winter capital," Lightemotion founder François Roupinian said in a press release.

The firm proposed the project to The Office du Tourisme de Québec in 2013, and now it's producing it with the help of the Montcalm neighbourhood's business improvement association, as well as the city and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.

The lampshades are expected to remain in place until the end of March, though it's possible to mount new art on the existing structures.

This isn't the only spectacular display that Lightemotion has produced in Canada. Other projects have included the stunning public concourse at Montreal's Place des Arts and interior lighting at the Cosmodôme in Laval.

The giant lampshades remind us somewhat of the "Starry Night"-inspired bike path in Nuenen, the Netherlands, a tribute to Theo van Gogh that was unveiled last year.

We've heard word that a similar project could come to Toronto. And we can only hope that more projects like these find their way across Canada.

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