KUNG FU MAT, 2007
Installation

Mat (vynil, polyethylen foam, velcro), steel wires
Dimensions: 600x600x130 cm

This installation will be featured in the exposition Enlarge Your Practice, which will take place next July at the Friche Belle de Mai in Marseille.
The mat has already been constructed. The relief of the mat will be created by attaching thin steel cables to the exhibition space ceiling.
This project was created during a 5-month period spent in Shanghai with the Cultures France program « villa Médicis hors les murs ».

The installation is made of a deformed Kung Fu mat floating in the exhibition space.The surf ace is built on the base of a triangular grid, identical to those used in 3D software to create flexible surfaces. Beyond its extremely geometrical and synthetic aspect, this huge mat seems to outline a natural shape. Indeed, the forms extracted from technological construction tools tempt to reproduce the natural form of a mountain.

This work is also an adaptation of physical properties proper to digital kung fu movies. The development of the post-production and its result, which is the modification of the physical properties of materials, marks an important step in the evolution of gestures and forms of the kung fu in the cinema. In this production of effects, the substance is deformed compared to reality, the materials lose their qualities and become soft or hard, pure effects dependant on their
use made by the body. The same effects are applied to the use of the architecture during the fights, so the space and the elements are totally controlled.

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