From immersive galleries to multisensory experiences, interactive installations are redefining our relationship with contemporary art. Montréal, known for its vibrant arts scene, has played host to many of these innovative exhibitions. These installations create true dialogues between the artwork and the viewer, turning passive observation into active participation.
In doing so, they redefine not only how we engage with art but also how we understand our role within creative spaces.
Here are five major examples of installations that have made a lasting impact on the art world, and how some have found a special resonance in Montréal’s cultural spaces. Each one offers a distinct approach to interaction, expanding the boundaries of what an artistic experience can be.
Rain Room – Random International
Rain that pauses to let you pass.
Rain Room is an immersive work by the collective Random International. Visitors walk through a downpour that stops wherever they go, thanks to a system of sensors. Presented in several major cities, including a memorable Montréal exhibition, the installation prompts a sensory and philosophical reflection: what does it mean to control the elements? How does our presence alter the environment?
A space for contemplation
The experience creates a nearly spiritual atmosphere. It is a work that merges natural forces with human intention, blurring the lines between observer and orchestrator. The audience actively takes part in a choreography, becoming an integral part of the work. Water, in this context, is no longer just a natural element; it becomes artistic material, sculpted by technology and human presence. Such fluidity invites visitors to reflect on their relationship with nature in the age of mechanized interaction.
The Obliteration Room – Yayoi Kusama
From emptiness to excess: the art of colourful disappearance.
Yayoi Kusama transforms an entirely white interior, furniture, walls, and objects into a collective canvas. Visitors are given colourful dot stickers to place wherever they wish. Day by day, the room disappears under a shower of polka dots until it becomes nothing but colour. This transformation reveals the power of collective creation, where the erasure of the original void becomes a metaphor for visual proliferation. It’s a joyful erosion, where silence is consumed by the exuberance of participation.
The power of colour
The work draws attention to visual saturation and transformation through repetition. The minimalist beginning gives way to chromatic exuberance. It also questions the role of the viewer, no longer just an observer but an artist contributing a simple yet essential gesture to the evolution of the piece. Through this democratic gesture, Kusama invites us to consider how art can emerge from repetition, accumulation, and shared impulse.
TeamLab Borderless – Tokyo
A museum without walls, where art moves with you.
TeamLab Borderless offers a one-of-a-kind immersive experience. This digital museum in Tokyo eliminates both physical and symbolic boundaries. Artworks move freely from room to room, respond to motion, merge with one another, and continuously transform. It’s a full immersion where the individual becomes the trigger for visual worlds. The journey becomes nonlinear and dreamlike, echoing the way memory and imagination intertwine.
A living artwork
Visitors become co-creators of a fluid world. The space changes according to human interaction. TeamLab explores the convergence of art, nature, science, and technology through an organic and poetic aesthetic. A version of the exhibition was also presented in Montréal in adapted formats, illustrating the global fascination with these evolving environments. Each visit is different from the last, forming an ephemeral imprint shaped by the body and the moment.
Cloud Gate – Anish Kapoor
An urban mirror that invites a new way of seeing.
Known affectionately as “The Bean,” this monumental sculpture in Chicago is made of polished stainless steel. It reflects and distorts urban landscapes, skies, and passersby. Kapoor designed the piece as a responsive surface capable of absorbing the world and redistributing it. Each visit becomes a visual performance, a reinterpretation of reality. It’s a gateway into perception, turning each onlooker into both subject and spectacle.
A new vision of body and city
Cloud Gate transforms public space into a playground for visual and sensory experimentation. It reflects the surrounding world in poetic, introspective ways, creating a dialogue between the intimate and the collective. It also redefines our relationship to architecture, material, and light. As people gather around its mirrored surface, the sculpture becomes a social catalyst, connecting strangers through reflection.
Pulse Room – Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
When the heartbeat becomes light.
In Pulse Room, suspended light bulbs flash to the rhythm of each visitor’s heartbeat. Every pulse is captured, transmitted, and visually echoed, creating a collective rhythm of light. The installation becomes a biological orchestra, where each participant contributes their own vital tempo. It is an artwork made not of pigment or pixels, but of presence, immediate, intimate, and ephemeral.
A materialization of the living
The work makes human energy visible. It forges a direct connection between art, science, and perception. Mexican-born and Montréal-based artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is internationally known for installations that explore biometrics, memory, and public space through technology. Pulse Room was presented at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. Its quiet beauty lies in its vulnerability: a light that pulses, then fades, echoing the fragile rhythms that bind us.
Conclusion
These interactive installations don’t just delight the senses; they overturn traditional hierarchies between artwork, artist, and audience. They invite engagement, presence, and co-creation. In cities like Montréal, they thrive in a fertile ground of technological innovation and artistic curiosity. Art is no longer just something to look at. It’s something to walk through, to touch, to feel. It becomes experience. And in that experience, we find new ways to connect with ourselves, with others, and with the world we inhabit.
