Public Art Installations from Numen / For Use Design Collective

The Croatian/Austrian Design Collaborative Numen/For Use blends architecture and public installation art. The sculpture-like pieces are large in scale and take over whole public spaces while also reinventing them, changing the way in which they can be occupied and changing the experience of the interactions between participants. Numen/For Use has shared with us three of their recent works. Tape, which was actualized in Florence, Italy and Melbourne, Australia; Tuft Pula, a more permanent version of Tape installed in the middle of the former church in Pula; and Net, built in Z33 high spaces. Tape and NET take a material that is ephemeral and non architectural and turn it into one that has architectural capacity. Join us after the break to read more about these projects!

The Croatian/Austrian Design Collaborative Numen/For Use blends architecture and public installation art. The sculpture-like pieces are large in scale and take over whole public spaces while also reinventing them, changing the way in which they can be occupied and changing the experience of the interactions between participants. Numen/For Use has shared with us three of their recent works. Tape, which was actualized in Florence, Italy and Melbourne, Australia; Tuft Pula, a more permanent version of Tape installed in the middle of the former church in Pula; and Net, built in Z33 high spaces. Tape and NET take a material that is ephemeral and non architectural and turn it into one that has architectural capacity. Join us after the break to read more about these projects!

The video shows the installation of the site specific installation, Tape Florence in the piazza of Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy. This project spatially redefines the already public and occupied space of the piazza, adding a new dimension to the experience of public space. In this otherwise two dimensional space, the intervention by design collaborative Numen gives people the opportunity to be above and below while occupying the same part of the piazza. In this case the piazza acquires an additional level, an additional interiority nestled between the pillars of the interior courtyard of the building. Tape Melbourne, which can be viewed in the gallery below, was a similar installation of this pliable public art, spanning over an outdoor amphitheater six meters above the ground. The installation appears to be an organism that has affixed itself to the architecture.

The concept of the form was sculpted by the movement of dancers moving between pillars in a sequence. The tape is an artifact of their motions through space and leaves behind an architectural form that can be reused. The tape is stretched between the pillars of Palazzo Strozzi first forming an intricate web that serves as a framing that will then become the boundary between inside and outside. A second layer of tape is then spun in a perpendicular direction encapsulating the space and effectively making it occupiable.