Laure Gatelier
Installation, in: Architecture of Survival, Zagreb, 2007.
Laure Gatelier (Belgium)
‘Impact’, Plasticine, explosives
Video of an action carried for the first time at Sparwasser hq, Berlin during the exhibition ‘Architectures of Survival’, curated by Komplot, April 2008.
Artist Statement :
“My work is about the color, texture and shape of objects and their imbrication in the surrounding space. My working process is similar to the manner in which I cook food. There is period of reflection, an action upon a material and then a period of waiting for a reaction which is often out beyond my control. I often work with ephemeral objects and events, Impact, being one such example : an explosion of plasticine (children's modeling clay). Often as with this particular work, the energy that radiates out of the object and the creative process, is also pre-existent in drawings I create prior to the psychical action.
The setting and timing of the piece was as follows : For the first hour of the opening of the exhibition, the visitors could walk around a plot (as on a graph) of differently colored Plasticine pieces that were on the floor, linked to each other by explosive strings. After an hour, the visitors were asked to leave the exhibition space, enabling them watch the Plasticine explosion through the outside window (that moment is evident in the video). When the visitors come back in, they could witness the impact spread of the Plasticine all over the artwork present, floor, walls and ceiling. There were feelings of excitement about this action which resulted in such colored chaos and also deception, as not all of the Plasticine devices exploded. The result was striking; Plasticine dotted and diffused in the most unexpected ways. As the evening progressed, the audience started to throw pieces from the floor on the walls and in an immediate sense, it placed everyone present both into an atmosphere of playfulness and started a demystification process of the exhibition space. Following the action, in a postscript, the Plasticine pieces remained as if colored dots throughout the exhibition space during the entire period of Architectures of Survival, acting as traces of a past event that visitors could only guess at.
This action/installation enables me to experiment with elements that important to me beyond color and material, provoking both amusement and participation of the public in the art space.”
