immersion

Interior & Spatial Installation
Wood, Fabric, Fire & Water
Espoo, 2015

 
The concept of the project started with the idea of fire as a place. Drawing from Bachelard’s text ‘Psychoanalysis of Fire’, we aimed to explore the event of fire through a multi-sensorial experience. The project was realized as a two-part installation: one part was inside a gallery space and another one- on the public space. By means of textile and the ignition of fire we appropriated and re-interpreted a bird-watching tower on the shore of Otaniemi (Espoo). Wrapping the tower was both a way of isolating it as an experience and a way of subverting its original function- instead of watching the nature outside we place the focus on the inside (the structure, the water, and the fire). The quality of that experience was translated to the more aseptic atmosphere of an art exhibition through a box explorable with different senses- touch, sight, smell and sound. the art-work could be fully experienced only on the opening day as a two-step event: after having explored the qualities of the box (deconstructed experience of the ‘fire installation’ and its context), the audience was guided in small groups through the dark forest to experience the real installation on the shore. The darkness of the walk has an immersive effect giving also the time to the viewers to imagine and establish connections between the two experiences. This project is done in collaboration with three brilliant young artists: Elena Burtseva, Blanca Dominguez Cobereos and Joana Patrao in October 2015.