Friche Babcock The Triple Hall

In La Courneuve, a luminous vortex immerses the viewer into another space-time and blurs the boundary between reality and imagination...

From the summer of 2022 to the summer of 2023, Quai 36 collaborates with Emerige, Compagnie de Phalsbourg, and the City of La Courneuve to offer the public an artistic and cultural program that foreshadows the future life, culture, and leisure hub in La Courneuve known as "La Fabrique des Cultures."

In June 2022, an artistic journey created by eight French and international artists emerged from La Courneuve - Aubervilliers train station to the gates of the former factory. This journey was the first invitation to head towards the industrial site, a symbolic signal in a passage location, to establish the site as a new destination in the city.

Investing in the gates of this mythical industrial cathedral is a nod to the upcoming opening of the triple hall, which will host the continuation of the program: the monumental light installation by artist Olivier Ratsi.

"Eppur si muove!" is an unprecedented installation by Olivier Ratsi, presented in the former Babcock boiler manufacturing factories in La Courneuve, a monumental industrial heritage. Drawing inspiration from the expression attributed in legend to Galileo, "Eppur si muove!" which translates to "And yet it moves!", this installation, composed of about sixty light tubes deployed on a macroscopic scale, is inspired by the Earth's movement in space. Rather than using the sun as reference, the installation's shape represents a helical form that unfolds in the monumental space of the industrial site, resonating with its imposing architecture. It also refers to the cylindrical shape of the former Babcock factory boilers, a symbol still vividly representing the industrial history of the Parisian suburbs.