Hammock Brings Neighborhood Harmony
After literally having conquered and enveloped the world with their Tape Installation, the Numen /For Use continue their exploration of the structures which help them explore social relations. This time it is about ephemeral architecture, about an installation that can be climbed on, but that is at the same time, a metaphorical project: “Net by Numen/For Use” which will be on display in the Z33 – Huis Voor Actuele Kunst Gallery in Hasselt, until the 2nd October 2011. The installation is actually a hammock which can be used as a playground or as a place where one can contemplate the world around us. The project was created as a result of interest in transparent artificial landscapes which are created by the current architecture in public areas. The final aim of the project was to cover the closed backyards with hammocks, in order to enable the occupants of houses to come out into the multi-layered structures. The idea was not only to accomplish the sense of floating on air, but also what was much more important, to rethink the concept of the backyard as the area that should be shared by all occupants. As the Numen/For Use point out, among other things, the aim was to create the type of “net” that would reintegrate the neighborhood that is becoming more and more alienated, and the hammock/net represents a type of a public balcony.
The structure – installation itself is comprised of layers of flexible net that is suspended in the air. The flat layers of the net are interconnected on counterpoints to form a “floating landscape” which becomes open for visitors to explore, and it also allows crossing between layers. The end-result is an “op-art” public sculpture, or a community hammock, that relates to topics of instability, levitation, and return to basics. For now, the Numen/For Use invite the visitors to enter the installation and try to climb to the top.
Scroll down to take a look at the making of the installation video
More on the Numen/For Use Group can be found here
