'Moving Meshes' at Domaine de Boisbuchet
Intentionally ambiguous yet painstakingly researched, Moving Meshes asks the question: Should the human body or should formal considerations take the lead when considering the parameters of modern interiors? Hovering at the intersection of organic sculpture and costume design, each of Blaise's bamboo frameworks is a flexible and wearable pavilion of sorts and fills space in a manner reflective of Shigeru Ban's structures and their conceptual exploration of transparency, the spherical, and the open plan. The installation includes five delicate, though resilient, bamboo works and a video projection that helps to narrate a range of permutations and the overall choreography of space.
Blaisse has been questioning the dynamics of fluidity for years now, beginning with earlier projects that included collaborations with contemporaries such as designer Issey Miyake; dancers Kenzo Kusuda, Makiko Ito, Marcela Giesche, and Michael Schumacher; and numerous international filmmakers. The span of these multi-disciplinary investigations has reached audiences in theaters, on the catwalks, and in major exhibitions in Kyoto, Paris, New York, London, Perth, and Amsterdam. Domaine de Boisbuchet is new territory for Blaisse in which to showcase her work given its large landscaped park with pavilions, its uninhabited 19th-century château, and its design shop located within a historic mill on the banks of the Vienne river.
Moving Meshes was created in collaboration with Parsons The New School for Design's fellowship students and exhibition designer Mikaël Baillairgé. Set within a 300 square meters exhibition space, students Oscar Trujillo Amezquita, Laura Jane Kenny, Elizabeth Parker, and Santiago Peraza helped Baillairgé install objects, images, text, sound and video, construct, paint and arrange backdrops for display, and create path-finding maps. This new fellowship program was developed by Parsons in conjunction with the Centre International de Recherche et d'Éducation Culturelle et Agricole (CIRECA), the organization that oversees cultural activities at Boisbuchet and currently headed by Alexander von Vegesack, co-founding director of the Vitra Design Museum.
Moving Meshes is on view at Domaine de Boisbuchet in Lessac, France through September 22, 2012.
The sunlit interiors of Domaine de Boisbuchet come to life with Dutch designer Maria Blaisse's bamboo structures in the Moving Meshes exhibition. Part organic sculpture, part costume design, these lattice-like forms suggest new possibilities for textile applications in architecture and design.
An expanding and contracting bamboo mesh by Dutch designer Maria Blaisse tests the resiliency of woven materials and the art of gesture in defining space and volume. Moving Meshes includes five spherical forms like this one as well as accompanying video to demonstrate improvisational interactions in the gallery's exhibition setting.
Diagrams along the gallery walls show the permutations that the user might explore when interacting with Blaisse's lattice frameworks. Materials are delicate to the touch but resilient in nature.
Here's a detail of the diagram.
The pieces illustrate both the delicate and robust qualities of bamboo, and the strength that comes from fluid design properties. Blaisse encourages her participants to be challenged by what "control" means in this new context.
The exhibition is informed by the designer's extensive background in textiles and materials research. Her work with choreographers, fashion designers, and filmmakers explores interactions between environments, interior spaces, and people.
The interiors of Domaine de Boisbuchet serve as a raw backdrop for Maria Blaisse's movement research investigation.
Maria Blaisse has collaborated with designer Issey Miyake; dancers Kenzo Kusuda, Makiko Ito, Marcela Giesche, and Michael Schumacher; and select contemporary filmmakers. The span of these multi-disciplinary investigations have reached audiences in theaters, on the catwalks, and in major exhibitions internationally.
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