Set in an industrial playground in Brussels, Magnetic Flow, an immersive light and sound exhibition complete with DJ nights, has reached its climax.
The experience was housed in LaVallée, a former industrial complex turned cultural space and community hub in Molenbeek. The 1000 square metre space was brought to life this winter with kinetic light installations that respond to music – and to the touch of visitors – making this a mesmerising interactive show that everyone could explore at their own pace.
What’s more, every Friday and Saturday during the run, night sessions with DJ sets were hosted to a light show of their own, alongside a bar and a foodtruck. Last weekend iconic DJs Dave Angel and Bushwacka helped the event close with a grand finale.
Created by 10 Parisian artists known as Collectif Scale, the artworks bring together music, contemporary art, robotics, LED mapping, architecture, and programming. Many mechanical or industrial processes are hidden from us these days behind a screen of technology. Collectif Scale rebels against this, taking the raw beauty of objects and light in motion and making us notice them. The artists behind the works did not attend Fine Art Schools but hail instead from technical, practical backgrounds. They reject art snobbery.
Our background is in the culture of cable and soldering iron.
Collectif Scale
“We’re just as inspired by the world of contemporary art as by unashamed, mainstream pop culture. We love Star Wars as much as Vaserely; we’re just as interested in video games as modern art. By coming together, under a single name, we can champion an artistic language of our own,” Collectif Scale say.
The Brussels edition was the seventh outing for the collective and while some of their extraordinary creations have been seen previously, for example at Lyon’s Fêtes des Lumières, three of the instatllations were brand new works.
Hulahoop was the first Scale installation to use only kinetic movement. A simple wooden ring duplicated and animated creates a series of geometric patterns to the music of Lebanese pianist and composer Rami Khalifé.
Echo, specially created for the exhibition, employs laser technology and motion to slice through space. The audience is invited to control the music and visuals.
In another part of the playground, visitors were put in charge of a gigantic pyramid of drums and lights, making the room throb to their own beat for a while.
Back to the intimate-setting of the LaVallée bar area last Friday night and Dave Angel, who hit the charts back in 1990 with his ‘Nightmare’ mix of the Eurythmics ‘Sweet Dreams’ was already infusing the room with his own unique brand of soulful, Detroit-influenced “groovy, funky, solid” techno to a criminally underfilled, but delighted room of about 100 people. What a privilege.
Look out for Collectif Scale’s next event, in a city near you.
