Programmable, responsive flights. An object leaves the ground, crosses the space, reacts to light and music, then lands as if it had decided to.
Every flight is composed in advance, gesture by gesture: the moment the object lifts, the curve it draws across the room, the instant it hesitates, accelerates, returns. Then it is replayed identically, night after night, in silence.
The flight is synchronised with light, music, a voice. The object seems to sense its surroundings, and the audience doesn't try to understand: it simply watches.
Every movement is drawn in three dimensions, every instant timed to the music and the light. The result is a score, replayed identically at every performance. It is the writing of an installation, a launch, a ceremonial moment.
The object follows a performer, approaches a spectator, moves away at a gesture, comes back. The space is sensed in real time and the flight adapts to it, with nobody piloting. It is the writing of a performance, a dance, an encounter.
A self-contained case, an object in permanent flight. For a museum, a flagship, a lobby. Runs without an operator, for months on end.
Reference: Aethéris, Cité des sciences, 9 months
An object taking flight to music during a launch, a dinner, a keynote. One suspended minute, prepared in a day at your venue.
Concept visualYour object (a perfume bottle, a watch, an exceptional piece) takes flight along a path written for your venue and your story. Design, prototyping, rehearsals, operation.
A copper sphere in continuous flight, at the heart of the “Magic” exhibition, from 13 October 2026 to 18 July 2027. Nine months of autonomous operation, without intervention, in front of hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Flight mechanics and electronics: Olivier Merlet · Production: L'Atelier de l'Impossible · Scenography: Maskarade · Music: Bernard Vallery
Watch the filmA perfume bottle doesn't fly like a sphere, a watch doesn't land like a feather. Each object has its own weight, balance and way of moving. So every project starts with a research and development phase of its own.
An illusionist by training, Romain Lalire carries the 360° vision of L'Envol: the concept, the writing of the flight, the light, the story. On stage, collaborations with dancers; on screen, simulations to imagine each flight before it exists. One idea throughout: making objects fly as if they had decided to.
Creations for LVMH, Hermès, Cartier, the Centre Pompidou and the Cité des sciences.
studio.romainlalire.com
Engineer and maker, Olivier Merlet makes L'Envol possible: the mechanics, the electronics and the software are all built by Olivier. Where the vision stops at an idea, this work keeps it in the air, with the reliability that nine months of continuous flight at the Cité des sciences demand.
Flight mechanics and electronics of Aethéris, Cité des sciences et de l'industrie.