The St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican was transformed into a work of art on Tuesday as it served as a canvas for a public art project that sought to raise awareness on climate change and endangered species.
Several images were projected onto the building giving viewers in person and online a glimpse of "Fiat Lux." The display started at around 7 p.m. Rome time, NBC News reported.
"I think people are going to cry and be emotionally moved with how beautiful it is," said Travis Threkel, one of the curators of the event, before the light show started.
Pope Francis gave his blessing for the show. The pope is actually very concerned about climate change and even released an encyclical about it earlier this year.
Louie Psihoyos, another curator and director of the film entitled "Racing Extinction," said they would be using 50 giant projectors to make the light show possible. They would place these projectors on huge towers to properly project movie-like images of the world's creatures onto the white facade of the basilica.
"It's kind of like if Michelangelo had Photoshop," Psihoyos jokingly said.
Just last July and August, Therkel, Psihoyos and the rest of their team made the same effort and projected images of endangered animals onto the United Nations headquarters and the Empire State Building in New York City.
They expected that the light show for the Vatican would eclipse their previous efforts, saying that the light show's timing could not be more perfect since it will coincide with the launch of the Catholic Church's year-long Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
The organisers expressed hopes that their efforts will inspire more people to care for the planet and be more conscious about saving it. "You have to do something audacious to shock people... to really grab their attention," Psihoyos said.
