From 27 April – 8 September 2019, a specially commissioned 10m Moon was installed in the vast space of Gare de Lille Flandres (Lille Train Station) in France as part of Lille3000.
The moon has always been a destination which humanity has wanted to travel to. There is a poetic significance of the Moon artwork being installed within a major train station, conjuring themes of travel and exploration.
The Moon in French Culture
A Trip to the Moon (French: Le Voyage dans la Lune) is a 1902 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, including Jules Verne‘s novels From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon, the film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore the Moon’s surface, escape from an underground group of Selenites (lunar inhabitants), and return to Earth with a captive Selenite. It features an ensemble cast of French theatrical performers, led by Méliès himself in the main role of Professor Barbenfouillis, and is filmed in the overtly theatrical style for which Méliès became famous. It is widely regarded as the earliest example of the science fiction film genre and, more generally, as one of the most influential films in cinema history.