Main Plaza was packed at 8:30 p.m. friday night for the premiere of “The Saga” video installation. Anticipation hung in the air as more than 100 people listened to city and church officials praise the work of French artist Xavier de Richemont and Main Plaza Conservancy organizers before the big unveil.
Do not worry if you missed it last night, you have 10 years to catch it. The MPC plans on hosting “The Saga” several nights a week – including Saturday and Sunday night. (Perhaps right after Game 5 of the 2014 NBA Finals.)
District 1 Councilman Diego Bernal, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, MPC Board Chairman William Scanlan, Fr. David Garcia, and Fr. Larry Christian introduced Richemont to the crowd.
“I hope it’s going to work,” he said with a thick French accent. “This is the work I’m signing, but this is the work of a lot of people … Remember this night. Never look at this cathedral (the same way) again because I’m trying to make her talk to us.”
The audience was hushed from the first crack of thunder that played on the accompanying soundtrack and quickly whisked away to the beginning of time. Richemont’s work starts with simple, light creation and works its way to chaotic representations of current events.
Read more: The Saga: Visual Feast at San Fernando Cathedral.
It was fabulous but so packed the viewing wasn’t great. I will definitely be going again and again, taking friends and referring San Antonio Bike Tours guests! What a wonderful gift to the city.
I was skeptical when I first heard about the plan. I was afraid it would be cheesey or disrespectful of the Cathedral, but WOW is it beautiful!!! We were there the first night and viewed it from the back by the projectors. It was great and we stayed to watch it twice. We stopped by the second night after enjoying some Saturday Secundo down on S. Flores to see how big the crowds were. We watched it from the front and caught even more things than we did Friday. It was fun to listen to the crowd. Some were just passers-by who stopped and were so amazed. Judging by the number of cell phone videos being taken, this is going viral very fast! Great job to all involved.