French artist Charles Pétillon presents his first public art installation featuring 100,000 giant white balloons filling the grand interior of the 19th Century Covent Garden Market Building.

Weaving its way through the South Hall of the Grade II listed Market Building, Heartbeat (with with 100,000 glowing white balloons) stretches 54 metres in length and 12 metres in width, and incorporates 'gentle pulsating white light to symbolise the beating of a heart and reflect the history, energy and dynamism of the district'.

Heartbeat is the first installation Pétillon has created outside of his native France, who is best known for Invasions, a series of arresting sculptures which challenge perceptions of everyday scenes by filling the likes of derelict houses, basketball courts and even cars with hundreds of white balloons. To accompany this vast installation (his largest yet), a pop-up gallery (at Unit 5 Royal Opera House Arcade), showcases Charles’ series of Invasions photographs as well as some of his other work. 

The commission is part of Covent Garden’s annual cultural programme, which has seen Alex Chinneck, Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst take over the market and piazza in previous years. It took a team of 25 people five nights to inflate each of the 100,000 individually sized balloons before the sculpture could be installed. This will also be the first time that one of Pétillon’s balloon sculptures is on show to the public. 

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