Art on The Mart, Building Light

Art on The Mart is the largest permanent digital art platform in the world with a display that spans across 2.5 acres of projection surface, measuring the size of nearly two American football fields. A total of 34 digital boxer lumen projectors, each about the size of a toddler and weighing 300+ pounds, illuminate the digital art platform in downtown Chicago.

In 2023, Art on The Mart commissioned Gensler to create site-specific artwork for a 15-minute projection experience. The resulting piece, titled “Building Light,” explores themes of discovery, urbanism, and change through four abstracted and time-lapsed vignettes. Aimed to evoke optimism and wonder, the projection celebrates what design can do for our communities and its power to uncover creative solutions for society’s biggest challenges. “Building Light” depicts how individual discovery can morph into exponential impact and serves to inspire both Chicagoans and visitors as they experience the city around them. An original soundscape from Gilded Audio accompanies the piece.