Season IX – Marlène Huissoud & Marcin Russak, Duo Show

Botanic Psyche

14/09/2018 — 18/11/2018Spazio Nobile Gallery
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

With Marlène Huissoud and Marcin Rusak

Marlène Huissoud (FR) and Marcin Rusak (PL) used to share a studio in London until last year. They are both experimental designers having the same research and approach to natural materials with similar themes but different ways to translate them into their sculptural unique pieces or limited editions: furniture, lighting and wall installations, photography and drawings. While Huissoud is fascinated by the insect materials and incorporate them into her creative process like honeybee and silkworns, Rusak has developed his own flower and leaves infused resin, from waste flower to perishable materials.

Marlène Huissoud, Cocoon Collection

Cocoons is looking at new ways of using silkworm’s cocoons without killing the worm as it happens during the silk production. The silkworm is one of the most iconic insect experiencing a morphosis during his entire evolution. It is born as a worm but then morph into a butterfly arrived at maturation.

Within the silk industry most of the Bombyx Mori are killed in order to extract the silk from the cocoon; what if we let the worm become a butterfly? How can we use this material differently and celebrate the morphosis of the insects? My artworks have been made by an accumulation of thousands of silkworm’s cocoons and are then varnished with a thin layer of a natural honeybee bio resin. The slow process of the making of these unique objects underlines the beauty of the insect world and defends a slow process in the making of those alien-looking pieces.

 

Marcin Rusak, Flora Collection

Flora Collection derives from Rusak’s family history and is composed of two main groups of sculptural works:

Flora Temporaria is made of visible flowers, petals and leaves in the possible matte or polished finishes in black, rust or green, while Flora Perma is mixing visible cross sections of petals and stems in matte and polished finishes in black, rust or white. As Rusak explains: “My grandfather’s flower factory closed just a year before I was born, so I wasn’t exposed to this part of my heritage as a child. It was only when I began exploring the idea of aging materials that I put two and two together. Closing the narrative circle of 20 years, I went back and investigated this part of my family history: the flower-growing industry. In many ways this approach is similar to what my grandfather was accomplishing; cross-pollinating different strains of flowers. For both of us, flowers represented a material palette from which to test-out different processes. My first impulse was to generate a living composite and at same time, suspend the lifespan of flowers, that in normal circumstances, quickly decays. Working closely with a scientist, I developed a bacteria that fortified the natural elements before submerging them in resin slabs. Overtime, that same bacteria would eat away the flower, leaving ghostly voids behind. Whereas Perma is my research, Flora is the result”.

 

Link to catalogue

142 RUE FRANZ MERJAY 1050 BRUSSELS