He will prepare a installation with more than 4000 balloons

Photo special collaboration, amélie st-yves
This sculpture, forming a astronaut is a montage made at the Float Convention in St. Louis, in February 2017, by a team including Martin Lemire was part of it. This is not the same sculpture that will be carried out at the national championships in California.

Amélie St-Yves

Saturday, 24 February, 2018 22:11

UPDATE
Saturday, 24 February, 2018 22:11

Look at this article

A 48-year old man is going to inflate, tie, twist and place over 4000 balloons to mount on the extreme of 4.6 meters high at an international competition in California, from march 14 to 17.

Tuesday, march 13, at 9 a.m. in San Diego, Martin Lemire will get to grips with his 7 teammates from Canada’s Twisted Team to the 10,000 balloons which will make their competition at the World Balloon Convention, which is held every two years, and which brings together 1000 participants from 52 countries this year.

The final assembly will be 4.6 meters high, 4.6 meters wide and as much deep. Eleven teams compete for this flagship event of the competition.

Challenge 27 hours

The time to complete this challenge out of the ordinary is 27 hours. Nobody is going to sleep in the editing room, while coffee and energy drinks are flowing.

Martin Lemire does not want to reveal the final project, but speaks of a scene romantic from a Disney classic.

It ensures that the aches will be worth it.

Photo agence qmi, amélie st-yves

Martin Lemire prepares a flower with balloons in his workshop.

“You have pain in the back and in the feet towards the end. You can put tape on the fingers to continue to attach balloons, but physically, this is not fun. However, the result is really impressive “, said the man, who is a teacher in a youth center in Montreal, in addition to being a clown part-time.

Martin Lemire alone is responsible of almost half of the balloons of his team, especially on the backgrounds. Its share is estimated to be 20 hours, it will help others in the last right.

It’s been a year that he and his teammates are preparing for the event, via face to face meetings on Facebook.

They have designed, made many tests and calculations, because a repetition is impossible.

Two members are in British Columbia, one in Alberta, four in Ontario and Martin Lemire in Quebec.

They will also have two people on site to help, a Quebecer and an Australian.

Ephemeral

The judges will make the tour of the works on Wednesday, and the convention will continue until Sunday, where each team will have two hours to blow up his own balloons.

“That is the wonderful art of the ball. It is short-lived. We will work on the balloons for 27 hours, it ends on Wednesday noon, and on Sunday one loses it all, ” said Martin Lemire.

The educator reinvests all the money he makes as a clown in the conventions and is estimated at $ 50,000 the money he has invested in the 22 conventions which he has attended since 2011. All his money clown going on there.