He’s never been to Australia, let alone the Opera House. But this is how Yann is lighting its sails

French artist Yann Nguema has never been to Australia, but his first visit to Sydney this week will not be for a holiday – it’s to see his art projected onto the city’s most iconic canvas.

“Ten years ago, it was my dream to do a projection on the Sydney Opera House,” he said. “I remember I had the contact of the director of the Opera House on my Instagram, and I wanted to send him a sample of my work, but I never dared to because I didn’t think I was good enough. I’ve been wanting to do this for years.

“Then the Vivid festival contacted me.”

Nguema, whose work has been projected onto landmark buildings across Europe, Asia, and the United States, said he was shocked when he was asked to light the Opera House sails, but quickly locked it in. The project was due in three months.

“The development of the project has been very quick. They basically gave me carte blanche to choose a theme and all the artistic elements. They also asked me to stay true to my own character and style, which is really combining natural elements, nature, and technology,” said Nguema, who spoke to this masthead via translator Nicola Thayil.

“We started talking in December and had a meeting in January. Then I had to write the brief and submit it at the end of January … since the project was approved, I’ve been working on it every day, every weekend, every night since February. It’s just me doing everything; I don’t have a big team.”

Now he has finally finished his work titled Opera Mundi – an interpretation of Australian wildlife and culture – Nguema will finally visit Australia to attend Vivid, which starts on Friday.

He weaves the story of how Jørn Utzon designed the Sydney Opera House into a broader narrative about how nature can inspire art, rendering elements of sky, land, and sea in light. The projection is accompanied by a score from Romanian musician Mischa Blanos, who fuses techno and classical music.

“For the artwork, I was inspired by all the different points of entry to the Sydney Opera House and also by Jørn Utzon, the Opera House’s architect, in the sense that he was inspired and influenced by natural forms – including the wingspan of birds,” Nguema said.

The Opera House’s unique shape meant Nguema’s typical projection “recipes” for historic European buildings didn’t apply – he needed to do something else.

“[It’s] very different from what I’m used to in terms of traditional square lines of historic buildings that we have in Europe, with lots of windows, lots of sculptures. The Sydney Opera House, in some ways, is actually simpler because it’s almost like a screen already,” Nguema said.

“It’s bringing together a balance between projecting the graphic design on the screen, but it also highlights the architectural lines and shapes of the roof.”

Nicola Thayil provided translation for this story.

Vivid runs from May 22 to June 13. Read more about the festival below: