Sunday November 2 2008 / Science & Technology - Art & Design
La Princesse wakes up
La Princesse is a 13-metre (50') mechanical spider designed and operated by French performance art company La Machine.
La Princesse came out of "hibernation" in Liverpool on the 5th of September - 'awoken' in a hail of fireworks and smoke, before striding up and down in front of the cheering crowd. She crawled down The Strand before heading to her resting place at the Cunard building.
La Princesse was the opening show in a 5-day Captial of Culture event.
The spider is made out of steel and poplar wood, weighs 37 tonnes, has 50 axes of movement and is operated by up to 12 people strapped to her frame.It was built in Nantes before being shipped to Merseyside and assembled in a secret location.
The
Princesse was designed by La Machine's François Delarozière, who also designed the mechanical elephant and the giant girl for Royal de Luxe's performance of The Sultan's Elephant which visited London in May 2006.