La Monnaie OperaSPOILING FATE

A cultural institution embraces AI to echo a theme of destiny

With a new season approaching, the distinguished La Monnaie (De Munt) opera house of Brussels was eager to maintain its creative spirit while also seeking to expand and diversify its audience. The theme of the season? Fate, reflected through the lens of Wagner’s Ring.
Spanning two years, Wagner’s epic drama begins with an apocalyptic vision of the world centered around the concept of Fate. With a young and dynamic team at the helm, BaseBRU was poised to infuse fresh perspectives into its 16-year partnership with this cultural institution.

How could we embrace Fate and integrate it within our creative process to meet La Monnaie’s ambitions? For the first time in over a decade, BaseBRU chose to change direction from its traditional campaign approach. Instead, we deliberately lost control of the creation by surrendering the imagery unto the hands of Fate.
This strategy allowed for an avant-garde means of exploring visual outcomes. In parallel, Base aimed to subvert Fate by deliberately spoiling the endings of each production as well as the overall theme of the season. We asked the playwrights of La Monnaie to summarize each play into one line, spoiling key elements of the stories, to play with Fate. For instance, Turandot’s dates most often end with a funeral.
To further emphasize this partnership between human and machine, Base developed a typography style that juxtaposed tradition and modernity. The color red underlying the campaign, symbolizing passion and emotion, encompasses themes of love, death, and the opera. Finally,AI-driven motion language was injected into the campaign visuals to bring the story to life. Throughout the entire process, collaboration played a central role, with significant human input driving the project forward.

With a new season approaching, the distinguished La Monnaie (De Munt) opera house of Brussels was eager to maintain its creative spirit while also seeking to expand and diversify its audience. The theme of the season? Fate, reflected through the lens of Wagner’s Ring.

Spanning two years, Wagner’s epic drama begins with an apocalyptic vision of the world centered around the concept of Fate. With a young and dynamic team at the helm, BaseBRU was poised to infuse fresh perspectives into its 16-year partnership with this cultural institution.

How could we embrace Fate and integrate it within our creative process to meet La Monnaie’s ambitions? For the first time in over a decade, BaseBRU chose to change direction from its traditional campaign approach. Instead, we deliberately lost control of the creation by surrendering the imagery unto the hands of Fate.

This strategy allowed for an avant-garde means of exploring visual outcomes. In parallel, Base aimed to subvert Fate by deliberately spoiling the endings of each production as well as the overall theme of the season. We asked the playwrights of La Monnaie to summarize each play into one line, spoiling key elements of the stories, to play with Fate. For instance, Turandot’s dates most often end with a funeral.

To further emphasize this partnership between human and machine, Base developed a typography style that juxtaposed tradition and modernity. The color red underlying the campaign, symbolizing passion and emotion, encompasses themes of love, death, and the opera. Finally,AI-driven motion language was injected into the campaign visuals to bring the story to life. Throughout the entire process, collaboration played a central role, with significant human input driving the project forward.