Atomium In/Out

Designed by engineer André Waterkeyn and built by architects André and Jean Polack for the 1958 World Exhibition of Brussels, a molecule of iron, enlarged 165 billion times, was chosen to represent the science of the future. Once a symbol of collective utopia, the Atomium is today a monument with a life of its own. Its recent renovation provided a unique opportunity to analyse the building, along with its hold on our imagination. Over the course of a year, Marie-Françoise Plissart filmed the dismantling and reconstruction of the Atomium, revealing new aspects of the structure from unexpected angles. From inside the monument, we see the metal plates tumble; workmen suspended from cables perform their precise and risky operations. All is floating, in movement. Suddenly, in a state of vertigo, we feel the void beneath our feet.