Jeff Koons — Seated Ballerina (Museo Jumex, Mexico City)
This project presented multiple challenges. First, the task was to illuminate a monumental sculpture in dialogue with an equally commanding architectural backdrop—the Museo Jumex building by David Chipperfield—so the artwork would read clearly at night without competing aggressively with the façade. Second, the museum had a limited budget for temporary exterior lighting. As a strategic response, we reviewed the museum’s storage inventory from previous exhibitions to identify luminaires that could be repurposed. We found eight Lycos fixtures with the necessary lumen output and optics; however, they were rated for interior use while the installation required exterior operation.

To bridge that gap, we worked with the museum to develop watertight protective housings that would allow the fixtures to perform safely outdoors. This enabled precise aiming from multiple positions to model the sculpture’s volume and ensure it stood out against the building’s presence. By combining careful beam selection with controlled dimming ranges, we revealed the piece’s curvature and scale with a measured, “majestic” legibility rather than theatrical glare. The lighting was initially intended to run only from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm, yet the public response was so strong that the museum chose to keep the piece illuminated throughout the night—demonstrating how a highly engaging result can be achieved with relatively low investment when strategy and detailing are aligned.

Photo by: Moritz Bernoully

Photo by: Moritz Bernoully