The Orb
The Orb is a nimble architecture of experience and light. Against the grand staging of the new Charleston East building—an architecture of lightness in its own right—this pavilion performs as a complementary structure: one developed from the computational protocols and spirit of play that guide the work that happens on the premises. This system of many parts in ultra-thin aluminum will perform as an icon and a point of engagement for both Google employees and the Mountain View public.

TOKYO METACLOUD
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Vincent Leroy onthult ‘Tokyo Metacloud’, een gigantische zwevende wolk die door de straten van de japanse metropool trekt. De installatie, bestaande uit dunne gebogen bladen, speelt met de balans tussen materiaal, lucht en transparantie om een ​​indruk van extreme lichtheid te creëren. Nogmaals, het poëtische en contemplatieve universum van Leroy maakt kijkers los van de echte wereld en nodigt hen uit om te genieten van een meeslepende, dromerige ervaring.
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Vincent Leroy unveils ‘Tokyo Metacloud’, a gigantic floating cloud that sweeps through the streets of the Japanese metropolis. The installation, consisting of thin curved blades, plays with the balance between material, air and transparency to create an impression of extreme lightness. Again, Leroy’s poetic and contemplative universe detaches viewers from the real world and invites them to enjoy an immersive, dreamlike experience.

Bathing Lightness
Bathing in Lightness est une installation lumineuse et sonore interactive qui semble animée par une entité essaim essayant d’explorer son monde intérieur et de communiquer avec l’extérieur. Composé de 52 ampoules à filament, il visualise le mouvement d’un essaim de particules entraîné par la présence du spectateur et sa propre envie intérieure. Les visiteurs peuvent interagir avec l’installation en se déplaçant devant elle tandis que leur mouvement est suivi par l’essaim et ainsi traduit en lumière et en son – visibles à l’intérieur du groupe d’ampoules et audibles via des haut-parleurs ou des écouteurs à proximité.

Ombré Glass Chair

“German Ermics is a Latvian designer who has recently presented to the public his splendid Ombré Glass Chair, which embodies the perfect tribute to To Shiro Kuramata and his iconic Glass Chair (1976), considered one of the iconic furniture designers of the 20th century. The keyword of his creation is “simplicity” combined with the transparency and the apparent lightness of the material, the result is an elegant minimal work.Another peculiarity of the chair is that it was manufactured with a new industrial product, the Photobond 100, welded without the use of screws or mounting-reinforcements, thus eliminating any superficiality.” Claudia Fuggetti

Intuit
The movements of one individual effect the balance of the piece so greatly that the other person must move to balance the sculpture. ‘Our bodies are constantly adapting and bending to the configurations of buildings and the designs of transportation. In recent drawings, urban blueprints fuse with human anatomical representation… I emphasize on the ideas of flexibility and lightness. The machines I build serve to express the elegance of a gesture, a finite moment of equilibrium.’ Eve Bailey

Watage
An interactive installation using naturally-generated power rather than man-made sources like electricity. Dandelion fluff (watage in Japanese) soaked in water to form drop-like shapes, untreated fluff, and so on serve as modules, bonded with liquid paste to be reconstructed. The fluff sways in response to viewers’ breath or movement, even in the absence of breeze, immaculately revalidating the viewer’s own existence by making their influence on surroundings visible without use of technology. Using its surrounding environment to send off its seeds, the dandelion has achieved a lightness and form in its fluff specialized to the purpose and sprouts up each year no matter how the world may change. Having been drawn into the quietly-paced world of plants, the artist looked to dandelion fluff for a new form of expression able to hold its own against showy, rapidly evolving technological expression.

Криста ван дер Ниет

The work of Krista van der Niet emerges from a dreamlike state of mind, whereby her imagination brings the things around her to life. She seems to glide along the lightness of things and grasps the beauty of the pure object. During the making process objects gain a metaphysical layer of meaning. She is the guiding factor for the viewpoint of her audience, in order to convey her perception. At this moment the sculptor becomes a photographer and you stand still together with her.

Hele International Art Center
“The ethereal, bubble-like forms that press against the walls and ceilings of the space are organic and supple. Their effect is an ineffable lightness combined with spatial drama.”
Johnson Chou

АЙРИС ВАН ЭРПЕН
イリス ヴァン ヘルペン
FALL 2017
AERIFORM
‘Aeriform’ examines the nature and anatomy of air and the idea of airborne materiality and lightness, creating negative and positive space with shadow and light. Van Herpen also drew inspiration from the Danish underwater artists Between Music who challenge the relationship between the body and its elemental surround, in a subaquatic environment where air is absent.

HE
‘He’ by the Turin-based studio Bam! Bottega di Architettura metropolitana, is a large volume suspended that creates a shaded space that is cool by day and then transforms into a luminous and evocative lantern accompanying the evenings and events promoted within the YAP Summer Program. Lightness, transparency, innovation and flexibility are the characteristics of ‘He’ that are capable of making the museum a place in which culture, fun and free time may converse.

Caten
Created for the Saint Sauveur chapel in Caen, Caten is a levitating sculpture, determined by gravity and guiding the evolution of a sound composition.
300 fine wires suspended from two ropes, connected themselves at each end to a slowly rotating arm, form an evanescent surface which interacts with the architecture. By a symbolic mirror effect, the curves of the wires, created by the gravitational force, reflect the shapes of the church arches. Caten opposes the ephemeral to the eternal, the movement to the static, and produce a tension between the lightness and the millenary stability of the space.

The works of the Lithuanian artist Zilvinas Kempinas are not only kinetic but also minimalistic. Now a resident of New York, Kempinas uses the simplest of means to create complex and atmospheric room situations of great beauty. His installations play with air and lightness – the reliefs are based on time and chance[…] Gravity seems abolished, light’s palette penetrates and activates the materials in his installations.

КРИСТА ВАН ДЕР НИЕТ
The work of Krista van der Niet (1978) emerges from a dreamlike state of mind, whereby her imagination brings the things around her to life. She seems to glide along the lightness of things and grasps the beauty of the pure object. During the making process objects gain a metaphysical layer of meaning. She is the guiding factor for the viewpoint of her audience, in order to convey her perception.

马亚花神
sleep levitations
French artist Maia Flore in a cool series entitled “Sleep Elevations”. A very feminine, surreal, sort of romantic artwork. Her subjects are young women being levitated by objects. Flore wishes to emphasize the attraction the girls feel towards their new, boundless surrounding, and the lightness of the reality they are entering into. Their contorted movements is meant to articulate a contrast between physical limitation and the limitlessness of imagination.

The Unbearable Lightness
Libertiny’s fascination with the beauty and intelligence of nature fuels his work with timeless yet relatable emotions. The relationship between Man & Nature, both psychological and physical, serves as a constant source of inspiration.

Lightness of Being