Giant mechanical beasts took to the streets of Ottawa this past weekend

This past weekend two giant mechanical beasts took to the streets of downtown Ottawa to battle it out with one another.

The monster-size animatronics were part of a performance called, “The Spirit of the Dragon-Horse, With Stolen Wings,” designed and created by French street theatre company, La Machine.

François Delarozière, the artistic director behind La Machine, was inspired by movement to create the performance, “because movement is the expression of life and there is this idea to make big things, because when we make big things we inspire larger emotions from the public and you can see more movement in a larger machine…” according to Antoine Piffaut, the director of movement, in an interview with Maker Junior.

The two mechs showcased a lot of movement during the performance this past weekend as Long Ma, the dragon horse creature trotted, galloped, reared up and lay down among other actions such as breathing smoke and fire. While Kumo the spider didn’t exactly trot anywhere, each of its individual legs could move on their own and the mechatronic arachnid was also capable of spraying water. Both beasts weighed more than 40 tonnes and Long Ma stood at 36ft, while Kumo required 16 people to operate it.

The performance started on Thursday July 27th when the eight-legged Kumo woke up on top of the Notre-Dame Catherdal. The following day the fire breathing Long Ma woke up at City Hall, and battled Kumo at the National Gallery of Canada. On the 29th Kumo and Long Ma walk through the ByWard Market and battled in front of the Supreme Court of Canada.

On the last day Kumo travelled to LeBreton Flats while Long Ma toured the Chaudière Falls before battling with another one last time at the Canadian War Museum.

Source: The Verge

Image Credit: La Machine