Lawrence Malstaf
Shrink 01995, 1995 – ongoing
PVC, vacuum pump, air tubes, steel pipes
260 x 320 cm
Performances every weekend with different participants
On Saturdays: 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.
On Sundays: 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Special date: 26 December, at 2:30, 3:30 and 4:30 p.m.
Duration 20 min
Courtesy Lawrence Malstaf / Tallieu Art Office
Lawrence Malstaf is known for his interdisciplinary artworks, which move freely between visual art, installation, dance and theatre. His work deals with the human body and its possibilities of perception and explores physical and psychological boundaries. Breath is the starting point for the staging of Shrink 01995, which was originally created as a six-hour performative installation. Malstaf performed it himself. He later extended the work to include visitors, who were also able to experience this intense work.
Two large, transparent foils are stretched across a framed structure. The person presses their body into the space between them. Wrapped in this skin, he or she holds two tubes. One removes air, one supplies air. One creates a vacuum between the foils so that the body floats in a compressed state, while the other allows the body to breathe. For the duration of the performance, the person inside moves slowly and changes positions, and it is they themselves who regulate the air supply. There is no danger for the participants. However, they are faced with the challenge of having to overcome their own psychological expectation that the process might be difficult and dangerous. And they need to consciously change the way they control their own physicality. Breathing must find a new rhythm.
A breath is at the beginning and end of every life. We are constantly inhaling and exhaling into the world, that is the basic way of relating to it. The breath can stagnate or flow. The interplay between breathing and mental states is known in all ancient civilisations. Pranayama originated in India as a technique of breathing exercises for meditation and controlling thoughts.
The designed arrangement of the work shuts out sight and hearing and instead intensifies the perception of touch and pressure on the entire surface of the body. The senses are directed inwards, an increased concentration on the inside of the body sets in—the beating of the heart, the rushing of blood and the rhythm of breathing. A profound experience of space and physicality, isolation and limitation, as well as peace and protection opens up. The installation reflects the adaptability of the human mind and creates an intense reflection on the duality of fragility and resilience under extreme conditions.
Malstaf is looking for an experience that throws people back to the realm of the existential. He himself has lived for years in the seclusion of Norwegian nature. Silence, vastness and the forces of nature are fundamental experiences that he considers essential for a sense of the natural.
The participants in the experience assume new poses at regular intervals. In moments of immobility, they almost look like paintings or still lifes. Depending on how you look at them, the experience may appear terrifying or peaceful. The three-dimensional state of suspension can give rise to countless associations: from nature morte in the sense of bodies exhibited as goods or products, to the state before birth and weightlessness in the womb. Malstaf’s art is not intended to tell a story. He does not create pictorial metaphors. He creates spaces that make it possible to experience primal forces.
Over the summer, the Frankfurter Kunstverein launched an open call for people from very different areas and backgrounds to be part of Malstaf’s work. The artist prepared the participants for the experience in several sessions. They experience Shrink 01995 from a personal perspective, acting not only as observers of the artwork but also as co-creators, exploring the limits of their physical and sensory perception and bringing the artist’s work to life on an intense level.
Lawrence Malstaf (b. 1972, Bruges, BE) lives and works between Tromsø (NO) and Oudenaarde (BE). Malstaf’s art moves between visual art and theater. He is known for his sensory installations that explore space and orientation, engaging visitors as co-actors. Since graduating in industrial design from the Henry van de Velde Institute in Antwerp (BE) in 1995, he has worked both as an artist and as an innovative set designer in the international dance and theater scene. His performance Shrink alone has been shown over fifty times worldwide. Malstaf’s works have been exhibited in significant institutions such as the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Le Havre (FR), the IOMA Art Center, Beijing (CN), the CCBB – Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo (BR), the Centre Pompidou, Paris (FR), the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg (DE), the Trondheim Kunstmuseum (NO), Bozar, Brussels (BE), FACT, Liverpool (UK), Eyebeam Art + Technology Center, New York (US), and Z33, Hasselt (BE), as well as at numerous festivals. He has received several international awards in the fields of art and new technologies, including the Golden Nica at Ars Electronica in Linz (AT) and the Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in Tokyo (JP).
