Infinite Pendulums isa sound, kinetic, and light installation featuring four large pendulums influenced by gravity and the acoustics of the venue where it is presented. These pendulums serve as the performing instruments in a three-movement composition (night/day/twilight) that unfolds over a thirty-minute cycle.
In the weight of gravity, the large spheres appear with the strangeness of animal-like robotics, engaging our physical and emotional perceptions. Their hypnotic movements reveal the paradoxes of the finite and the infinite, as well as the wave-particle duality.
Everyone can move through the space-time of a constantly shifting work, where plays of light and shadow, light diffraction, and kinetic spatialization continually reshape the space, offering an ever-evolving experience.
The work is based on a modular ecosystem that links the kinetic data from the pendulums to a real-time audio system: a microphone placed at the center captures the sound emitted by speakers built into the moving spheres. All this data is routed to various sound and light modulation parameters, according to several conditional levels. This correlative principle generates evolving soundscapes, allowing the installation to interpret its own score.
Executive production:
, Station MIR (Caen)
Co-production:
, GMEM (CNCM — Marseille); Un Singe en Hiver (Dijon); Maison de la tour (Valaurie); Euphonia (Marseille)
Supported by
, the City of Caen’s Millennium Initiative; UNESCO Creative City; SCAN (Fund for the Support of Digital Arts Creation); DRAC Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes; DRAC Bourgogne-Franche-Comté; SACEM
In collaboration with
Oblique/s
Artist Residencies
Laboratory of Mechanics and Acoustics; CNRS; GMEM; CAP15; Un singe en hiver; ESAM
Scientific support
MAS LMA-ECM-CNRS-AMU Platform (Marseille)
Technical support
Collectif Manœuvre (Caen)
In partnership with la Friche la Belle de Mai
Virgile Abela
Sound artist and composer
An artist, musician, composer, and graduate of the Marseille School of Fine Arts, Virgile Abela trained in Max/MSP with Julien Bayle in 2017. Since 2009, he has been developing a multifaceted body of work in which sound is experienced through a poetic exploration of the landscape. Seeking a form of immateriality through the generation of vibrational flows derived from ecosystemic devices in feedback with living organisms, he incorporates an interest in sound ecology into his work. He has collaborated with Luc Ferrari, Pierre-Yves Macé, Jean-François Laporte, and Jean-Michel Bruyère, and co-founded the group HOAXHOAX with David Merlo and Damien Ravnich; their album *Shot Re Volver* was releasedin France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Canada. As an associate artist of the MAS platform at LMA-ECM-CNRS-AMU in Marseille, he created the installationsPendule Acoustique, Zeitgeist, and Infinite Pendulums, at the intersection of land art, the performing arts, visual arts, sound art, and digital art. His recent works have been presented at Interstices, Sonica, Experimenta, ManSonores, Horyzons-Sancy, (((Interférences))), and GarageMU. Awarded by SCAN, SCAM, SACD, and Phonurgia-Nova, his work has also been the subject of publications.
A laureate of the Laboratoire Modulaire at ESAM Caen, he is currently working on the AIR project, a network of wind harps scattered across Europe, produced by Station MIR and supported by the Normandy region, scheduled for 2027. — www.virgileabela.com
“The laws of physics, including gravity, thus play a major role in shaping the music generated in real time by this mobile instrument. So much so that the listeners’ experiences can be described as unique, since they never repeat themselves exactly the same way…” — Dominique Moulon, TK21 magazine (12/29/2025)
“…The grand finale is a magnificent offering…” — Cave Caenem (December 14, 2025)
Friche la Belle de Mai (the Module)
41 Jobin Street13003
Marseille
Opening Reception
: Saturday, May 2 | 5:30 PM — 10:00 PM
Opening of the exhibition “
” Wed., May 6 – Sat., May 9 | 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM “
” Sun., May 3 & Sun., May 10 | 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
's Store will be closed on Monday, May 4, and Tuesday, May 5
Runtime
s (continuous)
: Free admission
Virgile Abela
artistic direction, composition, programming
Arié van Egmond Light
Patrick Sanchez Email:
Etienne Gourc
robotics, modeling
Jean-Marc Corneloup
CNC machining
Valentine Guillien
Sylvain Gorget
construction
Vincent Long
Sébastien Wierinck
3D printing