17 Screens: Bouroullec Brothers’ Installation at Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

Brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have been working together for over twenty years. Their work ranges from the design of small objects to special arrangements and architecture, from craftsmanship to industrial scale, from drawings to videos and photography. Their latest installation, 17 Screens, developed specifically for the gallery space at Tel Aviv Museum of Art, incorporates interweaving sequences of modular elements made of ceramics, aluminium, glass, wooden sticks and textile, held together by unique developed joints and hanging systems.

17 Screens resulted from a year-long research into the possible affinities among different disciplines of arts, crafts, materials, novel techniques and methods of traditional craftsmanship. Unlike their previous projects, where the Bouroullec brothers responded to commissions from manufacturers, the museum installation shown here has evolved independently from the demands of a predetermined product.

The work process involved working from drawings which, with the help of various craftsmen, specialised textile labs and textile makers, were translated into woven suspended grids that are positioned along free-form compositions of threaded ceramic cylinders and glass tubes in varying widths, part of which recall lab test tubes. Along these are hanging compositions made of anodised aluminium elements and a mesh of interwoven twigs, with the whole held together by elastic bands and plastic joints devised especially for the project.

The resulting sensorial view of overlapping tactile elements, activates the space in a web of uniquely-made prototypes that manage to convey a human touch.

The 17 Screens exhibition opened on 31 October 2015 and continues until 26 March 2016.

[Images © Studio Bouroullec.]