Colourful electronic mural relit at Hydro-Quebec

A distinctive mural designed four decades ago by artist Jean-Paul Mousseau for the lobby of Hydro-Quebec’s Montreal headquarters has been restored and is once again shedding its magic.
Like a stained glass window that becomes luminous when light passes through it, the mural is illuminated by a system of back lighting made up of 1,280 metres of neon tubes in eight different colors. Consulting electrical engineers Pageau Morel & Associes worked on the project.
The lighting system incorporates recent technological developments, but is restored to the artist’s original concept. It is made up of 800 neons — more than one kilometres of tubes if placed end to end. A computer produces and synchronizes the changing combinations of colour, luminosity and movement.
In 1962 the Quebec Hydroelectric commission requested proposals for a work of art to decorate the lobby and a jury awarded the contract to Mousseau. The mural is called Lumiere et mouvement dans la couleur, and was unveiled on October 10, 1962.
View it at www.hydroquebec.com/learning/mousseau