Atelier Ief Spincemaille enlarged one of the oldest inventions in the world and created a simple but versatile object called ROPE. Its dimensions are disproportionate, which means that ROPE loses its function as a rope. An eye-catching piece of furniture or functional sculpture? Anything is possible, as long as you use your imagination!
Because people on Rope are physically connected in a unique way, between sitting and lying, playing and speaking, together on one object, this sculpture creates new ways of being together. Sitting on Rope, we look in different directions and seem to experience silence differently. If one person shifts or moves, it also rearranges itself, creating a choreography parallel to the conversation. And of course it is an object that can easily be moved from one place to another. Rope is not only an object, it also has a soul.
ROPE 6M – ORIGINAL
The 6 metre long ROPE is very suitable for the home, especially as an atypical sitting and playing object.
ROPE is flexible, washable and can be used both indoors and outdoors. You can sit, hang and lie on Rope. Children can play on it and you can make different shapes and sculptures with it. it can also be used in the professional field to make meetings and brainstorming sessions more active and inspiring.
TURN 6M – MULTIPLES
Atelier Ief Spincemaille introduces four new and unique designs which will be produced in a limited edition of 100 pieces and can be seen as a Multiple. For these performances, Ief Spincemaille collaborated with Esther van Schuylenbergh, textile designer and lecturer at the KASK in Ghent. She won aTextirama award in 2020 in the category Concept. These multiples will be shown for the first time at the Contemporary Design Market.
Creation
ROPE is handwoven in Spincemaille’s workshop with a lead time of approx. 6 weeks. For this, a special weaving installation was developed in cooperation with engineering & design based in Leuven. It has an innovation patent. Each one is unique and numbered and shows the names of the braiders. The development of the braid for the ROPES is done together with the Belgian weaving mill Rubis in Izegem and Neckebroeck Passementerie in Erpe-Mere. With the mobile weaving workshop, ROPE can also be woven on site, possibly with the help of the local community and/or customer.
A 60 METRES LONG TRAVELING ART WORK
In 2017 Ief Spincemaille created ROPE 60M: a work of art 60 metres long with a diameter of 30 cm and weighing approximately 200 kg. Atelier Ief Spincemaille travels with ROPE around the world in search of a new meaning for this object by temporarily connecting it to a community, place or event. During these trips, ROPE writes a diary and tells something about his experiences. These diaries can be found via the following link: www.rope.blue/journal. ROPE 60M is a social sculpture: all over the world where ROPE 60M arrives, social contacts and interaction between people arise. Although Rope will always remain an impenetrable and elusive part of reality, its mere presence makes the world visible in a new way.
Give this open design object a fixed place as a seat or lounge, but also let it roam freely in your city, home or organisation and… in your imagination. Ropes’ message is clear: “do something with me”
ATELIER IEF SPINCEMAILLE
The artistic trajectory of the Belgian visual artist Ief Spincemaille (1976) spans visual art, design, media art, photography and performance. He explores the boundaries of the art fields and plays with the existing frameworks and forms. Not just for the pleasure of playing a formal game, but out of a need for new forms that better respond to his imagination and thechallenges of our modern world. Spincemaille succeeds in combining technique and poetry with a strongly committed social practice. He makes visual work about natural phenomena, perception tools that are linked to media art and visual performance projects with a strong social component. With these sculptures, Spincemaille investigates how the work of art can acquire meaning by temporarily connecting it to a community. Moreover, ROPE won the category “community” of the Henry Van de Velde Prize in 2017 and received an honorable mention in theTextirama Awards in 2020.
BUILDING CONNECTS NATIES
After presentations in e.g. Florence, Ukraine, Pittsburgh (USA), Montevideo (Uruguay), Guangzhou and all over Belgium, ROPE6M will be shown at U-Joints – Knots & Knits: the main exhibition of the Helsinki Design Week. ROPE 12M will interact with the audience during School of the Future / Ars Electronica in Hong Kong. ROPE 60M will try to get in touch with people and its environment during the Festival de Marseille.
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