PLASTIQUE FANTASTIQUEA journey through an ephemeral realm
Marco Canevacci and Yena Young
This extensive monograph, published by DCV, showcases for the first time a selection of projects from the past two decades. The catalogue features texts by Lidia Gasperoni, Mateo Feijóo, Daniel Felgendreher, and the authors.
In the wake of Frank Lloyd Wright’s pioneering work, visionary architects including Frei Otto and Buckminster Fuller established bubbles as a recognized artistic and architectonic form. The Berlin-based art duo Plastique Fantastique (Marco Canevacci and Yena Young) go one step further and harness them as a medium of temporary social interactions. The philosopher Vilém Flusser conceived of space in the digital universe as a network of relational settings in which humans can be in multiple places at one, as a “bubble that extends into the future.” Plastique Fantastique transform our urban and rural environments into laboratories for such spaces in which urgent social, political, and aesthetic questions are negotiated. Oversized translucent bubbles, traffic islands ringed by diaphanous tubes, giant lifebelts, air-filled sausages that the audience at a Peaches concert pass over their heads: Plastique Fantastique’s installations fuse art, performance, people, and architecture in a multisensory experience that blurs the conventional boundaries of art and focuses our attention on the larger bubble in which human existence is contained. Richly illustrated with exceptional photographs, this monograph is the first to document a representative selection from the duo’s projects of the past two decades.
DCV – Dr. Cantz'sche Verlagsgesellschaft, BERLIN
A special thanks to Martin Holz
www.dcv-books.com
An (in)visible pavilion
TREES & TRACES
An (in)visible pavilion
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Songhyeon Green Plaza / Songhyeon Dong, Seoul, Korea
SEOUL BIENNALE OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM
In the heart of Seoul, right beside the historic palace of the Joseon Dynasty, a pneumatic space emerges from the ground. The location of Songhyeon Dong carries a complex history, with various uses and owners over time. The (in)visible pavilion offers two contrasting perspectives: reflecting on the outside, while revealing transparency within. It acts as a temporal connector, transcending the boundaries of time at the Seoul Architecture Biennale.
Inspired by the site's intricate history, the artists came up with the idea of searching for relics from the past that might be hidden within its soil. Indeed, during the site visit in April 2023, they found several artifacts themselves, which are now displayed along the earthen wall of the installation. An immersive soundscape reveals the echoes of the long-vanished pine forest, once believed to “filter the energy” toward the Gyeongbokgung palace.
This juxtaposition of acoustic memories, visual perceptions, and tactile sensations engenders a multi-sensorial experience, both mysterious and immediate, drawing visitors into a unique narrative.
A Plastique Fantastique project, Marco Canevacci and Yena Young
Team: Pihla Pellinen, Sebastian Podesta, Lucas Sere Peltzer, Erick Montefort
Curator: Sara Kim
Assistant curator: Yong Jin Cho
Landscape architecture: Young-sung Jeon
Soundscape: Marco Barotti (assistant: Misha MacLaren)
Special thanks to: Anna Anderegg
Technical sponsor: ARRI Lighting Solutions
The 4th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism
RINGdeLUXE is an in situ installation that surrounds the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor footbridge in Paris on the occasion of Nuit Blanche 2023. This alliance connects the two shores as much as it evokes the inseparable relationship between the city, its river and the crossing inhabitant. The monumental structure awakens the personifications of the city, the Parisian allegories and the river, both divinities united during the night.
Artistic direction: Kitty Hartl
Production: Eva Albarran SARL
Direction of Cultural Affairs of the City of Paris
Many thanks to:
Tatiana Titli, Lola Majzels, Virginie Roques, Marie Gautier, Eric Fargnier, Frederic Peyrat / Ze-com
Music (video)
Artur Majewski (cornet) and Jan Słowiński (drums)
SŁOMA - Fifth - 2022
Editing (video)
Lucas Sere Peltzer
© Plastique Fantastique, RINGdeLUXE, - Nuit Blanche 2023, City of Paris, Paris, 2023
ΘΟΛΟΣ – THOLOS
ΘΟΛΟΣ – THOLOS
THOLOS - the circular dome in ancient Greece - has been reinterpreted in Plastique Fantastique's latest installation to achieve a metaphysical experience. The ripple of the columns creates a distorted image of the person looking at them, depending on the point of view and movement of the subject. A black sphere floats in the centre of the ensemble, challenging the perception of geometry and gravity.
Tholos questions the permanent materiality in our time and seeks to be temporary and ubiquitous.
Pop Air exhibition
Superstudio, Milan
December 23rd - February 12th 2023
Concept:
Plastique Fantastique
Marco Canevacci and Yena Young
Plastique Fantastique team:
Teresa Caputo
Xueqi Huangfu
Max Koeppel
Cora Röschlein
Special thanks:
The Balloon Museum Team
DOUBLE HEART
DOUBLE HEART
Lux Festival, Centro Cultural La Térmica, Malaga, Spain, 2023
Curator: Mateo Feijoo
Design Week Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2022
Curator: Dajana Vujaklija
Love Exhibition, Digital Art Festival Taipei, Taiwan, 2020
Curator: Yenyi Lee
Polytech Festival, Moscow, Russia, 2017
Curator: Anna Titovets Intektra
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Double Heart is a pneumatic sound sculpture which collects the heartbeats of random people and transforms them into a collective soundscape. Two visitors sit inside the sculpture, their pulse is measured, processed and amplified, revealing the endless variability of these rhythmic patterns. The beats are transmitted in real time by a sound system that can also be heard by the audience outside the installation.
The installation absorbs frequencies of human bodies and searches for possible compatibility between strangers and beloved, questioning the match as atonal repulsion or natural attraction.
Double Heart is a project that is constantly evolving and has already been exhibited at different occasions. The initial project has been developed together with the media artist Marco Barotti on the occasion of the Red never follows Exhibition, Saatchi Gallery, London: many thanks for his support.
Concept:
Plastique Fantastique
Marco Canevacci and Yena Young
Plastique Fantastique assistant:
Cora Röschlein, Pihla Pellinen
Special thanks:
Senka Radovic, Ksenia Lukina, Dmitry Sokolov, Jens Rösler (Goethe-Institut Taipei), Tsung-Han (DingZing advanced materials), Martín Moniche Ferrer, Luis Díaz González.
And all the amazing team of the Design Week Novi Sad