![Bat Signal by Alex Israel on roof of Le Corbusier's Cite Radieuse in Marseille](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2019/07/bat-signal-alex-israel-mamo-arts-centre-le-corbusier-cite-radieuse_dezeen_2364_hero_0-852x479.jpg)
Alex Israel projects Bat Signal from roof of Le Corbusier's Cite Radieuse
Multimedia artist Alex Israel has installed a Bat Signal at the MAMO Arts Centre on the roof of Le Corbusier's brutalist Cité Radieuse apartment block in Marseille, France.
Israel installed the spotlight projecting the outline of a bat as part of his Batman-focused exhibition at the Marseille Modulor (MAMO) Arts Centre, which occupies the rooftop of Cité Radieuse.
![Bat Signal by Alex Israel on roof of Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse in Marseille](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2019/07/bat-signal-alex-israel-mamo-arts-centre-le-corbusier-cite-radieuse_dezeen_2364_col_2-852x1277.jpg)
The installation is based on Tim Burton's 1989 film Batman, and the Oscar-winning sets created by production designer Anton Furst.
Israel has reimagined several props that defined the film including the Bat Signal, which was made from a refurbished second world war searchlight for the film and used by Gotham City Police Department to call Batman.
![Bat Signal by Alex Israel on roof of Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse in Marseille](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2019/07/bat-signal-alex-israel-mamo-arts-centre-le-corbusier-cite-radieuse_dezeen_2364_col_1-852x1277.jpg)
The Los Angeles-based artist chose to focus on the superhero as both Marseille and the brutalist apartment block designed by Le Corbusier reminded him of Gotham – Batman's fictional home.
"I was inspired by the myth of Marseille, and that historically it's been a bit tough, rough and dangerous," Israel told Dezeen. "And by Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse, which is made of concrete, and has a hyper-urban sensibility."
He added that he hopes people seeing the signal will realise that "childhood dreams can and do come true".
![Bat Signal by Alex Israel on roof of Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse in Marseille](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2019/07/bat-signal-alex-israel-mamo-arts-centre-le-corbusier-cite-radieuse_dezeen_2364_col_5-852x568.jpg)
Israel is the seventh artist to have created an installation at MAMO, which was established in 2013 by Ora Ito and occupies the roof and a theatre on the top floor of the brutalist building.
Alongside the spotlight Israel has installed a sculpture of the Batmobile car that the superhero drives in the film in the theatre space.
Previous installations at MAMO include Swiss artist Felice Varini creating a colourful optical illusion and French artist Daniel Buren installing a display of mirrors and coloured glass.
Ito commissioned Israel to create a distinctly different installation at the art centre than previous artists.
"I was interested in opening up the MAMO to a new direction: this exhibition is more pop, even if still with a strong conceptual statement, but less minimalist then the former ones," Ito told Dezeen.
![Bat Signal by Alex Israel on roof of Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse in Marseille](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2019/07/bat-signal-alex-israel-mamo-arts-centre-le-corbusier-cite-radieuse_dezeen_2364_col_6-852x1277.jpg)
"I am fascinated by how Alex Israel managed to transfer the iconic word of Batman in a place that perfectly relates to the initial film set he is referring to, by understand the potential resonance allowed by the current context: a brutalist architecture, a gritty image of the city – be it real or imaginary," he added.
"He opens up the space of the MAMO to a new dimension, a fictional, cinematographic one."
Cité Radieuse apartment block is one of the most influential brutalist buildings of the 20th century. Completed in 1952, the 18-storey slab block was the first, and best-known, of Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation.
Within the block apartment 50 has been overhauled by a succession of designers including Normal Studio, students from Swiss university ÉCAL and French designer Pierre Charpin.
Photography is by Stéphane Aboudaram / We Are Content.