BERLIN, FESTIVALS AND GALLERIES

article by: Dominique Moulon
for: mediadesign.net

March 2014

featuring LAb]au}'s exbition:
writinig, drawing. painting
at:
DAM Berlin gallery

paragraph:
Between Berlin and Paris
Finally, members of the Belgian collective LAb[au] exhibited in the DAM Gallery Berlin as they just did with René Denis in Paris. The first gallery being dedicated to kinetic, while the second is involved in digital, this double presence only reinforcing the idea that digital artistic practices are part of a historical continuum. Artwork "m0za1que 4*4*4" is composed of a grid of vertical planes, which are driven independently of each other to create all together, mechatronic choreography. But the shadows shown that are produced by their movements are coloured by three light projectors. Red, green and blue, they colour the shadows of their complements as Claude Monet loved to do between 1892 and 1894 by painting Rouen Cathedral at different times of the day. Not to mention the experiments of Nam June Paik in which video projectors did not last for long as he kept pushing them beyond their capacity so that in the image, flames would multiply ("Candle Projection", 1988). LAb[au], like Monet, work the series meticulously so that their aesthetic doesn't run out. Using technologies of their time, they contribute to the sustainability of a kinetic trend they renew with each series.