Following a two-year, €12 million refurbishment, the Central Market of Zaragoza (el Mercado Central de Zaragoza) marked its reopening with a stunning multimedia show that was projected onto its south façade over two nights in February of this year.
Entitled ‘The Dream of a Creation’, the first part of the show focussed on the vision of Félix Navarro Pérez, who was commissioned as the building’s chief architect in 1903. The show opened with images of the architect at the 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris where he discovered modernist architecture with iron and glass, followed by images of the design, geometric calculations and close-ups of the Central Market. The video-mapping then recreated the first construction works of the fish market and how guilds proceeded to erect the building, and concluded with images of the enamels found after the restoration of the market.
This was followed by a fantasy of light and sound with ‘Siglo XXI’, which offered a glimpse into the Central Market’s future; including the introduction of digital technology and even artificial intelligence, as well as digital construction and deconstruction of the building’s façade. Inside the building, as a nod to the time when the market first opened, was a performance of one of the acts of the zarzuela Gigantes y Cabezudos by five soloists, a choir of 16 singers and the Corner Orchestra.
The inauguration project, which was completed on 6 February 2020, was undertaken by audiovisual production company Delrío Comunicación Audiovisual, and was centred around projections created by three of Digital Projection’s M-Vision Laser 18K single-chip DLP projectors.
The M-Vision – a powerful single chip DLP projector with an impressive 18,000 lumens output and 10,000:1 contrast ratio – is designed for continuous operation of up to 20,000 hours without maintenance, making It an ideal solution for the rental, exhibition, and retail markets.
Delrío purchased the M-Vision units used for this project from local distributor Estalella Audiovisual. “The M-Vision 18K has near 3-chip performance in a 1-chip price point,” said Estalella’s Xavi Oriola. “Places that compete with ambient light, as well as applications that need a powerful yet budget-conscious large-format imaging solution, will benefit directly from the M-Vision 18K’s extensive light output.”
“I think ‘spectacular’ was one of the most used adjectives in the inauguration of the renovated Central Market,” said Xavi. “The events – one in the morning and one in the afternoon – were reserved for retailers and the authorities, but many Zaragozans wanted to come and try to discover what was going on inside.”
