As part of the Festival of Lights Zagreb, French artist Charles Pétillon presents the light installation Z.E.T. – Zagreb Enclosure Time on the central square Trg bana Josipa Jelačića, in the heart of the city.
For this work, Pétillon transforms one of Zagreb’s most familiar symbols, the iconic blue tram, into a true time capsule. The interior of the carriage is entirely filled with hundreds of translucent white balloons, which have become the artist’s visual signature over the years. Lit from within, they emit a soft and organic glow that seems to breathe slowly, as if the tram itself were animated by a living pulse.
Usually associated with daily movement and the rhythm of the city, the tram here becomes a suspended and silent space. By replacing passengers with this luminous mass of balloons, the artist evokes the collective memory of the city, the ordinary journeys, the anonymous stories, and the generations who have travelled through Zagreb aboard these trams. The installation thus creates a poetic pause within the urban landscape, inviting visitors to slow down and feel the intimate rhythm of the city.
Presented during the five days of the Festival of Lights Zagreb, the work interacts with the architecture and the nocturnal life of the Croatian capital, transforming public space into an artistic stage. True to his artistic approach, which uses the balloon as a metaphor for human presence and the fragility of time, Charles Pétillon proposes a contemplative and immersive experience in which light becomes a shared emotional language.
At the crossroads of contemporary art, urban scenography and visual poetry, this intervention fully reflects the spirit of the festival, celebrating the return of spring and inviting visitors to rediscover the city through the sensitive power of light.
18 - 22 MAR
