Walking into Moment Factory’s Mirror Mirror is, in every sense of the phrase, like walking into another world.

Consisting of a series of seven rooms or spaces, Mirror Mirror uses lasers and lights, smoke and mirrors, video and music, and even materials and fabrics to take visitors on a journey that can be best described as unflinchingly unique.

Taking over the 40,000 sq. ft. space previously occupied by Nordstrom’s at CF Chinook Centre, the showing of Mirror Mirror is the Western Canada debut for the experience which was previously on display in Montreal and Australia.

“It was a long time that we’ve been working on this adventure. We’ve developed a lot of night walks in nature for our Lumina series, but we wanted for a long time to do something similar indoors because we wanted to get closer to the people in the city,” said Marie Belzil, Creative Director at Moment Factory.

“The vision was always to think about where are the places that people gather, and we think that malls is are also a place that are transforming right now. People are not going only to shop there, they’re getting there to meet each other to hang out. It’s a bit of a goal to create a space that’s welcoming that makes you dream and connect to the people you’re with, and perhaps even to a stranger.”

The experience, which takes about 45 minutes, invites visitors to travel through a field of laser beams and mirrors, take a walk through a virtual river that makes music with every step, interact with windows into memories and emotion, and even sit a room that defies all sense of space and becomes, quite literally, just colour.

Almost everything in Mirror Mirror, outside of a small number of mirrors themselves, are completely interactive.

Moment Factory is best known for its work with some of the biggest bands and artists internationally, including Madonna, U2, and Imagine Dragons.

More recently the firm has moved into creating placemaking exhibits at varied locations from museums and airports, to national parks. Moment Factory was behind the 2017 Lumina production that transformed the shores of Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park, and more recently the forest around the Banff Gondola.

“We serve all kinds of visions, but this one was our own vision. Our practice leads us to do a lot of playing with perception and illusion. We play with emotion, and that’s why it came to us that the subject might be you what’s going on in your head,” said Belzil.

“The human mind, it feels it seems pretty serious, but the experience is not at all serious. It’s really for the wide public. It’s art but we don’t take it seriously, it’s close to entertainment, too.”

The mind made manifest

Belzil said that she hoped audiences would lean into the sometimes disorienting effects of some of the Mirror Mirror spaces, and that those experiences would be something they’d want to keep with them afterwards.

“It contains a lot of details and it might be even overwhelming at points. I’m hoping people feel that good feeling that we started to instil with the music, and that they just want to come back to experiment with someone else,” she said.

Darren Milne, General Manager at CF Chinook Centre, said that the mall had been having many conversations with groups about bringing more interactive art pieces to Chinook Centre.

He said that the space opened up by the departure of Nordstrom’s was an opportunity to partner with Moment Factory for a temporary installation.

“It really just evolved from there, and it was this past September we agreed that we would move ahead with it. Both teams had to work extremely hard over four months, with a lot of help from consultants and cooperation from the [City of Calgary]—and a lot of long hours—to make sure that this could be up and running for today,” Milne said.

He said that the addition of Mirror Mirror was welcomed by retailers, and that there was a hope that the new display would draw customers who hadn’t considered shopping at Chinook Centre recently.

“What we want to do is not only make sure that the shopping center is clean, safe, and comfortable for our shoppers, but we want to give them more interactive experiences. We think this is a great opportunity for people to come down have an experience that they haven’t had in Calgary lately, and then they can stay and shop, or have dinner or visit with friends, or whatever that is,” Milne said.

Ticket sales are currently open through February for Mirror Mirror, with the experience staying longer at Chinook Centre based on customer demand and rental demand for the space.

For more information, and for tickets, see mirrormirrorexperience.com/calgary.

Photos from Mirror Mirror