Installations

6 SCENES OF BEAUTY / UNTITLED 2012

Nathalie Lautenbacher and Naoto Niidome created an unreal scenery from the woods were the atmosphere is created by lighting, colour and natural materials. The work is made from real painted pine tree trunks brought into a box. The base of the interior is filled with over 5000 small porcelain bowls that create a colourful ground. The installation is like a scene from a fairy-tail and makes one´s imagination fly.

”What is the most beautiful place on earth? Personally, we think that forest is one. We´ve played with scale and colour to create a stage for a strange, unexpected and unknown event: What on earth has happened here? Wood and tree represent strong and reliable nature. A bowl is an archetype of man-made object: fragile and ephemeral. The installation is about longing to a silent place with no disturbance.”

The exhibition 6 Scenes of Beauty at Vantaa Art Museum showed art and design side by side as part of the programme of World Design Capital Helsinki 2012. Other artists in the exhibition were graphic designers Rami Niemi and Teemu Väätäinen, fashion designer Tuula Pöyhönen, sculptor Tommi Toija and visual artists Anna tuori as well as Maaria Wirkkala. The exhibition was curated and designed by interior architects Elina and Klaus Aalto.

STOCK-series  2013-

STOCK-series consist of tiny porcelain bowls and a storage space of various sizes. The 5.500 ceramic bowls were first manufactured for a World Design Capital event 6 Scenes of Beauty at the Vantaa Art Museum in 2012. After the event was over, the bowls had to be packed into boxes and taken elsewhere for storage. The packing, removal and storage became part of new installations which transform according to the surrounding space.

The work deals with the themes of change and permanence at many levels.

The eternal aspects of clay fascinate us, and ceramic material has something very permanent about it. The shapes of bowls are also related to longevity, although they look very fragile.