Anne Bean, in collaboration with the pyrotechnicians and artists, Mark Anderson and Nick Sales installed over 100 ribbons of 100 metres, each having an electrically detonated explosive charge at the roof end, to ignite and cut through the ribbons in order to finally release the new building.
During the days before, the ribbons acted as a gigantic aeolian harp, playing mysterious hummings and throbbings in the wind.
Performers from the Shree Muktajeevan Swamibapa Pipe Band dressed in full Scottish regalia stood on balconies of the high rise flats opposite, hosted by individual families, with 10 metres of rope light hanging down from each of the balconies, as well as on roofs of office blocks and various levels of Toynbee itself. They played a piece composed and orchestrated by Ansuman Biswas, with the ribbons, numbered on the detonating ‘keyboard’, to release at different moments, being an intrinsic part of the score.
