Alternativa: Labour & Leisure
Hall 90B,Gdansk shipyard, Poland
29.5.-30.9.11
As one of many artworks at the Alternativa: Labour & Leisure exhibition in Hall 90B, "Transformer" by Mariusz Waras is one that deserves more attention.
The installation consist of a giant robot resting in the large industry hall. Its parts can in theory be put together in another way to make a large ship. This fits well into Waras' way of approaching his art like an engineer, well known from his fantastic murals from the M-city project. The M-city murals are to be found all around the world, also in Stavanger.
He made a model in advance, to be sure that the parts of a ship actually were transformed to the robot. This was what drew my attention to the exhibition, and the installation was even greater than my expectations.
The design of the robot is also incorporated into the benches in front of the stage, thus enlarging the installation's scope. Transformer is what draws the main attention in the large hall.
Close to the installation is a screen showing an animation of the artwork. The animation is an artwork on its own. It starts as a ship entering Gdansk shipyard, but arriving in the dock it transforms itself into a giant robot. It climbs onto the exhibition building, tears a hole in the roof, and climbs inside to rest. And there it is, in real life, in giant size, just in front of you.
Installation workers admiring the video of Transformer
Amazing and impressive combination of a great idea, solid engineering and a fantastic result.
The artist and his work
Work by m-city in Stavanger:
M-city commissioned work at the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate here
M-city at Nuart 2010 here
