GAIA Art Installation to Hover Above BBC Concert Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall

This August, Luke Jerram's internationally acclaimed artwork GAIA will transform London's Royal Festival Hall as it is suspended above the stage for a weekend of heavenly, transcendental performances by the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Measuring seven metres in diameter and created using high-resolution NASA imagery of the Earth's surface, GAIA offers visitors the rare opportunity to experience our planet as viewed from space. Named after the Greek goddess who personifies Earth and installed in the Royal Festival Hall for the first time, the artwork becomes the centrepiece for a series of other-worldly orchestral concerts exploring our relationship with the Earth through music.

The weekend opens on Friday 28th August with Sounds of the Earth, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra under conductor Chloé van Soeterstède. Featuring works by Vaughan Williams and Hildur Guðnadóttir, this atmospheric concert of string compositions will take audiences on a transcendental journey beyond the realms of our planet. 

On Saturday 29th August, Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre invites audiences to slow down with Eternity in an Hour. Featuring the Eric Whitacre Singers, this electro-choral performance encourages a moment of meditation, reflecting upon the beauty of the Earth and the fragility of our shared home.

The installation will also be available for viewing independently on Sunday 30th August, accompanied by a specially created surround-sound composition by BAFTA award-winning composer Dan Jones. By combining detailed NASA imagery with a scale that recreates the “Overview Effect” experienced by astronauts, GAIA is at once visually stunning and an ever-timely prompt to consider our own relationships with our planet. Visitors are encouraged to walk around and beneath it, exploring it from all angles.

Since its creation in 2018, Luke Jerram's three dimensional planet Earth GAIA has captivated audiences around the world, appearing in venues ranging from Liverpool Cathedral to Australia's Gold Coast and the COP26 conference in Glasgow.