LAWRENCE MALSTAF / METABOLIC SPACES

Living objects, kinetic architecture and physical interaction are characteristic for the installations by Lawrence Malstaf. His responsive environments generate theatrical situations involving the visitor as an essential presence in their dramaturgy. In a complex play with unstable order, chance and change, his machines display emotion, doubt and other human qualities.

EXHIBIT takes place all summer at Le Tetris, Le Havre (F) with works & installations by Lawrence Malstaf, Alex Verhaest, Julie Stephen Chheng & Marco Barotti. 

Shrink-performances: 27 & 28 June and 5 & 6 September 2020
Artists Talk with Lawrence Malstaf & Alex Verhaest on 29 June 2020 at 17:00

Open 6/7 (closed on Tuesday) from 11:00 until 18:00. 
Free entry after reservation

LE TETRIS

Lawrence Malstaf is presenting six installations at Le Tetris:

Spheres 02016/20
Conversations 02012
Nevel 02004/10 
Shrink 01995
Territorium 02010/19
Nemo Observatorium 02002

Spheres 02016/20 - Large white spheres float around in a quiet space. They seem to defy gravity as they rise and fall in slow motion like unknown deep sea creatures.

Spheres is part of a series of ’suitcase works’ made  with a minimum amount of material while aiming for a maximum spacial impact. Next to the automated installation there is also a performance version with a dancer inside each sphere. 

Conversations 02012 - A couple of vibrating chairs are slowly moving and turning randomly through the space. They seem to search and reject each other with soft humming sounds. When a visitor passes by the chairs hesitate and then carefully try out different patterns. The patterns are not designed; it is a self-organising system where new compositions and new behaviour arises spontaneously through the duration of the installation.

Nevel 02004/10 - A matrix of nine pivoting walls forms a labyrinth whose architecture continuously changes. A sequence of different compositions creates choreography of spaces flowing into one another. It is an auto choreographic space to wander and get lost in, like in a mutating city, to linger and surrender to the disorientation.

Shrink 01995 - Two large, transparent plastic sheets and a device that gradually sucks the air out from between them leave the body (in this case the artist himself) vacuum-packed and vertically suspended. The transparent tube inserted between the two surfaces allows the person inside the installation to regulate the flow of air. As a result of the increasing pressure between the plastic sheets, the surface of the packed body gradually freezes into multiple micro-folds. For the duration of the performance the person inside moves slowly and changes positions, which vary from an almost embryonic position to one resembling a crucified body.

Shrink-performances: 27 & 28 June and 5 & 6 September 2020

Territorium 02010/19 - A space is divided into 4 rooms by 2 walls. A Euclidean space moving like the XY axis of a plotter. The 4 rooms are constantly changing in size, when one becomes larger another becomes smaller. However the walls are nearly immaterial: the plan of the walls is only indicated by vertical strings hanging down. Together with light and shadow they may look like a sterile autocad drawing or a projection. Yet when a string touched a visitor it curves and hesitates like only physical objects can. Our environment is always changing, sometimes slowly, sometimes dramatically, Since birth we are trained to adapt to the changing conditions and references around us. Sometimes we do this consciously sometimes unconsciously. In vain we keep looking for stability and order, we try to control and predict, fix norms and plans with the logic of cause and effect.

Nemo Observatorium 02002 - Styrofoam particles are blown around in a big transparent PVC cylinder by 5 strong fans. Visitors can take place one by one on the armchair in the middle of the whirlpool or observe from the outside. On the chair, in the eye of the storm it is calm and safe.Spectacular at first sight, this installation turns out to mesmerise as a kind of meditation machine. One can follow the seemingly cyclic patterns, focus on the different layers of 3D pixels or listen to its waterfall sound. One could call it a training device, challenging the visitor to stay centered and find peace in a fast changing environment. After a while the space seems to expand and one's sense of time deludes.