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'Anima Terra' is a sculptural landscape internally illuminated by LEDs. The latest in a series of laboratory projects, this work is a collaboration with Samsung. Commissioned as part of the inaugural show in the Modern Wing of the Chicago Art Institute, Anima Terra is now part of the museum’s permanent collection.

As a continuation of our experimental lighting work using LEDs, Anima Terra (Latin for living earth, or living landscape), is a sculptural topographic surface made of thin layers of formed metal that are individually and invisibly lit from within, this enables a range of inner lighting expressions inspired by natural phenomena, like the changing light from dawn to dusk.

Like a living landscape that changes over time, Anima Terra uses LED technology to evoke and celebrate the animating 'inner glow' – both natural and artificial – that is everywhere in the world around us.

This project has been undertaken with Samsung, leader in LED technology and innovative applications. The mutual goal is to create striking works that highlight the beauty, environmental efficiency and magic of LED technology. “Anima Terra, the collaboration between Yves Béhar and Samsung, could not be a more fitting work for our inaugural exhibition in the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago,” said Joseph Rosa, the John H. Bryan Chair of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago. “With the opening of the galleries devoted to architecture and design, we can see, from the nineteenth century to the present, how artists and designers have always looked to technology both as a source of inspiration and a vehicle for cutting-edge ideas. Anima Terra represents this perfect union of form and innovation, and, in its insistence on environmental efficiency, embodies our very moment in history.”<<