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Lovers Seeing Darkness. Ubiety Unknown
2018. Installation in the dark space. 8,8 x 12,6 x 7,3 m. 8 lights, 3 motors, control system, four objects (metal construction, monofilament): parabolic hyperboloid 400 x 400 200 cm, cone 150 x 150 x 140 cm, cone 120 x 120 x 115 cm, sphere diameter 107 cm, 5 metal strips 300 x 3 x 3 cm). / Four three-dimensional objects – sphere, hyperbolic paraboloid and two cones are suspended from the ceiling in the pitch dark room. Cones and sphere are suspended from the motors and rotate in different speeds. Eight light fixtures are placed throughout the space - on the walls, ceiling and the floor. Lights are dimming in and out sequentially. Objects are metal complex geometric structures interwoven with reflective strings. Strings scatter the light from sources into thousands of light traces, which connect to shapes in our minds.
What is experienced (seemingly unreal space with animate shapes) and what is actually there (objects and lights in the room) is very different and apparently disconnected, even when one’s eyes adjust to darkness and the room and objects become visible to some extent. As one drops mental habit of quickly extracting relevant information within the already familiar perceptual categories (as it does not help to make sense of one's experience) one’s perceptual and cognitive thresholds expand. Experiences allow speculating on the existence of other (then three human) dimensions.
"And after the chaos of the uncontrolled noise, the absence of light that Ivana Franke proposes in her absolutely dark room (Lovers Seeing Darkness) that moves to an abyssal background, in which there is no notion of space or time and in which strange creatures "octopuses and spiders", according to the artist; actually a light aluminum structure and fishing line nets, end up caressing and trapping the daring visitor and causing a scare or two. Pure sensation of vertigo. "[1]
[1] Montanes, Jose Angel. “Ramón y Cajal expone en el Macba.” Cataluña, El Pais, October 31, 2018 https://elpais.com/ccaa/2018/10/30/catalunya/1540930403_913293.html
Commissioned by MACBA
Project development: Tanja Cvetko, Israel Lopez, Dora Djurkesac, Ivan Palijan, Alexandre Mballa-Ekobena. MACBA: Hiuwai Chu, Nuria Fernandez, Alberto Perez. Installation assistance: Maria, Laura, Katja, Blanca, Claudio, Nestor
Installation views, Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA). Photo: Roberto Ruiz, © Ivana Franke, © MACBA