plastique fantastique explores refugee crisis with liveboat - chapter five

plastique fantastique explores refugee crisis with liveboat – chapter five
all images courtesy of goetz, serlenga, canevacci

plastique fantastique’s latest installation ‘liveboat – chapter five’ addresses ongoing issues regarding refugees. taking form as an oversized inflatable lifeboat which has ‘crashed’ upon the tarmac of berlin’s tempelhof airport, the work represents the end of a long, toilsome journey. within the blow-up structure, visitors engage with a constantly looping, multi-lingual soundscape that includes extracts from homer’s the odyssey, as well as intertwined fragments of refugees’ stories.

aerial view of the installation 

‘liveboat – chapter five’ is drawn specifically from the fifth chapter of the odyssey, in which after escaping from calyspo odysseus ventures once again into the open seas. poseidon, upon knowledge of odysseus’s travels, sends a great storm to stump his efforts.

‘taking his trident in both hands,
poseidon stirs the sea into a fury
and lashes up rain and squall.
mast and sail are torn away,
odysseus is thrown overboard
and buried under a wall of water.
when he emerges gasping and sputtering,
he somehow manages to clamber back aboard.
a goddess, leucothea, appears to him in the form of a bird.
she counsels him to swim for it.
‘take my veil, tie it around your waist as a charm against drowing.
when you reach shore, be sure to throw it back into the sea.”

 

homer, the odyssey, chapter five 

visitors inside can both hear and read the ongoing dialogue 

‘liveboat – chapter five’ situated on the tarmac  

visitors at the exhibition 

access to the installation is provided by two red entryways on either side of the pontoon 

interior 

front 

raft from above 

detail

bird’s-eye 

project info:

concept: marco canevacci
design: yena young
sound design: marco barotti
interviews: hadmut bittiger
coordination: steffi goldmann
team: mirjam dorsch, stephanie grönnert, hugo luque, simone serlenga, gabriel spera
thanks to: martin steffens, franz höfner, markus wüste, andrea klahold, herr gessner, homer
supported by: aktionsfonds quartiersmanagement schillerpromenade, kulturnetzwerk neukölln e.v., bezirksamt neukölln fachbereich kultur, stiftung umverteilen, AG dritte welt hier, grün berlin gmbh
photography: goetz, serlenga, canevacci

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: nick brink | designboom