(LA)HORDE at the Louvre
Nuit des Fous 2025

Context

In January 2025, the Musée du Louvre held La Nuit des Fous, an exceptional event staged in the Cour Marly and the courtyard facing it. For the performance, the museum invited (LA)HORDE, a choreographic collective now at the artistic helm of the Ballet National de Marseille, to create a site-specific setup that lived up to the venue.

The event drew several thousand on-site visitors and was streamed live on the Instagram accounts of the Louvre, (LA)HORDE and the Ballet National de Marseille. 2.3 million cumulative views.

I was first commissioned by the agency HVH, then in direct dialogue with (LA)HORDE as the artistic vision evolved. I led the entire technical direction for filming, live streaming and on-site broadcast, with a 15-person team including network technicians and the team dedicated to the iPhone wall.

Constraints

• A sealed museum venue with no stable network: no usable Wi-Fi, no exploitable wired connection in the courtyards. We had to build a network infrastructure from scratch to support multi-platform live broadcast and iPhone synchronisation.
• An ambitious artistic vision: (LA)HORDE imagined a wall of iPhones carried by a dancer, creating the illusion of a living, moving LED wall. The setup was unprecedented. No plan, no reference to copy, we had to invent it and make it work on the day.
• Louvre security logistics: strictly controlled access, imposed time slots, specific equipment restrictions, conservation approval for every cable laid. Every piece of gear had to follow a precise administrative pathway.
• Three simultaneous Instagram streams: Louvre, (LA)HORDE, Ballet National de Marseille. Three accounts, three audiences, three identical professional-grade feeds to push in parallel.
• Giant LED wall broadcast on site: on top of filming and live streaming, the image had to be relayed in real time onto a giant LED wall for the on-site audience. Zero tolerance for latency.

The setup

13 cameras across the two courtyards, a dedicated network infrastructure built for the occasion, and a production gallery coordinating live streaming, LED wall broadcast and the synchronisation of the on-stage iPhones simultaneously.

The technical feat: 46 synchronised iPhones, a living LED wall

(LA)HORDE asked for something that didn't exist: an LED wall carried by dancers. Not a classic LED wall on a fixed structure, a living LED wall that moved on the dancers' bodies and produced visual effects you couldn't get any other way.

The solution we deployed: 46 synchronised iPhones in total. A wall of 30 iPhones carried by a single dancer, fitted into a custom-built harness, displaying a video split into 30 segments simultaneously. 16 additional iPhones spread across other dancers, which we recovered and reintegrated in real time during the show.

The technical challenge: synchronising the wall of 30 iPhones to the frame so the unified LED wall illusion held, then integrating the 16 iPhones carried by other dancers in real time. The network challenge: keeping that synchronisation alive in a venue where no existing network could be used.

Building a dedicated network in a sealed venue

The Louvre's Wi-Fi was unusable for this kind of setup: too unstable, shared, partitioned by zone. Wired networking wasn't an option in the courtyards. The solution: deploying multiple Wi-Fi hotspots strategically to create a dedicated network mesh for the performance. The networking alone tied up two team technicians for three days of preparation.

That infrastructure powered, in parallel: the 3 Instagram streams, the synchronisation of the 46 on-stage iPhones, the LED wall feed, and the technical team's internal communications.

How it ran

• Beforehand: back-and-forth with HVH, then direct dialogue with (LA)HORDE to refine the iPhone setup. Multiple technical site surveys. Coordination with Louvre conservation to validate every logistics and security point.
• D-3 to D-1: phased installation under museum opening-hours constraints (operations possible only after public closing). Synchronisation tests on the 46 iPhones, real-conditions network tests, camera calibration.
• D-day: live performance. 13-camera filming, simultaneous live streaming on 3 Instagram accounts, real-time broadcast on the giant LED wall, control of the on-stage iPhone wall.
• Deliverables: final cut broadcast live, archive master handed over to the teams.

Results

• 2.3 million cumulative views on the Instagram accounts of the Louvre, (LA)HORDE and Ballet National de Marseille.
• Several thousand on-site visitors in the Cour Marly and the courtyard facing it.
• No technical incident despite the complexity of the setup: no stream drop, 46-iPhone synchronisation held throughout the performance, network stable for the whole duration.
• All parties delighted with the collaboration: Louvre, (LA)HORDE, Ballet National de Marseille, HVH agency.

What I take away

Working as a technical provider for (LA)HORDE, at the Louvre, for La Nuit des Fous, is the most beautiful project of my career.

This project condenses everything that makes my work compelling: a strong artistic vision pushing the technical envelope, a legendary venue with its own constraints, a 15-person team to coordinate, an unprecedented technical challenge (the iPhone wall) to invent upstream, and an execution that has to be flawless on the day in front of several thousand people and 2.3 million online viewers.

On this kind of project, every detail is prepared in advance, every technical solution is tested beforehand, every team member knows their role. And yet you also have to react fast when the artistic vision shifts the night before, or when a Louvre logistics constraint lands the morning of. That tension between meticulous preparation and real-time agility is what defines a successful setup, in my view.