Plastique Fantastique

魏雅琳、张慎

来自柏林的两人组 Plastique Fantastique 仿佛是一个施放空间变化咒语来制造奇幻景象的魔法师组合。他们将软塑料材质的使用与声光设计结合，在公园、街道、森林和博物馆里去创造具有“在地性”的装置。这些装置有着光滑的质感，造型与简单的几何形状相呼应。通过他们的作品，Plastique Fantastique 用一种柔和的、没有对抗性的方式进入了原有的城市空间，用创意推动有意义的公共空间共享方式。无论是置身其中还是在外观看，你都可以感受到这些参与性项目的一部分。与其说Plastique Fantastique创造了新的空间，不如说他们让那些人们已经习以为常、忽视的空间被看见。

“与其说Plastique Fantastique创造了新的空间，不如说他们让那些人们已经习以为常、忽视的空间被看见”

2020年初，如同打开了潘多拉魔盒，新冠肺炎疫情在全球传播和肆虐，给人们的生活带来了巨大的冲击，深刻地改变了人们对于这个世界的认知方式。它以“民主”且高效的传播方式无差别地感染来自不同阶层、国家、种族的人，迫使许多国家采取一系列如封闭、 有序隔离等激进的政策来抑制疫情的蔓延。作为对流行病对社会生活影响的深刻反思的结果，或者说它的缺乏，Plastique Fantastique设计了MOBILE PPS 和iSphere两个作品。

MOBILE PPS (医用可移动个人保护空间)是一个针对疫情防护设计的实用性作品。作为一种正压环境，它可以为医生提供一个安全的、隔离病毒的活动空间。MOBILE PPS是一个塑料材质圆柱体，3/4为透明空间，余下1/4不透明，以便保护医生在进行诸如更换衣物等私密活动时的隐私。供医生活动的空间明亮、通透，外界的色彩、光线可以轻易地透过它的表面而不会产生变化。内部与外部的空间除了隔着一层薄而透明的膜之外看起来并没有什么不同。但正是这种“看不见”的阻隔把医生和病人分隔开来，让几乎每个人都变成了一个孤立的个体。人们能看到彼此，却无法真实地接触。在后新冠病毒时代，人与人之间形成了一些无形的区隔，距离以微小的计量单位——塑料膜的厚度计算，但它仍然存在。

记住这一点，我们还应该考虑 MOBILE PPS 如何解决人类的恐惧问题。虽然与电影《异形》里的太空舱或是深海巡航的潜艇有着相似之处，但MOBILE PPS有着一个重要的特点——它是透明的。太空舱和潜艇使用厚重的金属外壳建造，以此来将人与可怕的环境（如太空或海洋）隔离开。而 MOBILE PPS 却恰恰相反，它是一种轻盈的、柔软的保护，在其中的医生仍然可以与外部的环境交流，而患者也不是被排斥在外的恐怖生物。无处不在的病毒让我们恐慌，但并不意味着我们要抛弃外部世界的一切——那里有着几乎整个社会，包括我们的亲戚和朋友仍然生活在那里。Plastique Fantastique 用这种空间的艺术让我们可以直面当前疫情的状况，去思考人与未知、与恐惧的关系。

疫情期间，许多国家要求人们在出行时遮住口鼻。除了佩戴口罩之外，我们还有其他可行的对策吗？Plastique Fantastique 的 iSphere 回答了这个问题。由两个透明的半球粘连在一起组成的 iSphere 可以将人的头部包裹住，把我们与外界隔离开。初看上去，iSphere 的形式令人赞叹，看上去很像透明版的宇航员头盔。它透明、几乎不可见的结构将我们与外界环境分离的同时，又让我们觉得自己似乎依旧在与自然亲密地接触着，从而大大降低了割裂感。iSphere 是一件有趣的艺术品，既调侃了民众为了遮住面部而采取的一些奇怪的方法，又严肃地鼓励我们去面对不得不与他人和外部环境隔绝的新情境。

这两件艺术作品一定程度上融合了建筑和雕塑，它们既像建筑那样构建空间，又像雕塑一样塑造体积。由于使用了简单的几何形状，它们具有形式主义和极少主义的特征。然而，当看到它们的表现力时，它们又带有后现代主义色彩，让人联想到克里斯托与让娜-克劳德两位“在地艺术”先驱的作品。这些作品虽然存在着显著差异，但在处理和建构人、空间和环境的关系上有着相似之处。Plastique Fantastique 的这两件作品，以一种颠覆对艺术一般理解的方式将艺术意义与实用功能进行了结合。

By Wei Yalin and Zhang Shen

The Berlin-based duo Plastique Fantastique is just like a group of magicians who cast spells of spatial change in order to create fantastic scenarios. They combine the use of soft plastic material with sound and light designing to create site-specific installations in places such as parks, streets, forests, and museums. These installations have smooth textures, and their forms echo simple geometric shapes.

“Rather than creating new things, Plastique Fantastique actually makes visible those spaces that people are used to and often ignore”

With their work, Plastique Fantastique enters the original urban space in a soft and non-confrontational way. Whether you are inside or outside their creations, you can all feel part of a participatory project, which uses creativity as a way to promote meaningful ways of sharing public space. Rather than creating new things, Plastique Fantastique actually makes visible those spaces that people are used to and often ignore.

In early 2020, as if someone just opened up Pandora’s Box, the Covid-19 spread and ravaged globally: The pandemic had a huge impact on people’s lives and profoundly changed people’s understanding of the world. Its “democratic” and efficient way of infecting people of all classes, censuses, and races has forced many countries to adopt a series of radical policies such as lockdowns and quarantines in order to curb the curve of contagion by corona virus. As an outcome of a deep reflection on the pandemic’s effect on social life – or its lack therefore – Plastique Fantastique has created MOBILE PPS and iSphere.

MOBILE PPS (Personal Protective Space) is a practical work designed for pandemic prevention: As a positive pressure environment, it can provide a safe activity space for doctors and isolate viruses. MOBILE PPS is a plastic cylinder which is, for its 3 / 4, a transparent space. The remaining 1 / 4 is opaque in order to provide doctors with some privacy when carrying out activities such as changing their clothes. The space where doctors can work is bright and transparent. Color and light from the outside can easily pass through its clear surface without any change. There is no visible difference between the inner and outer space except that they are separated by a thin and transparent film. But it is this kind of “invisible” barrier that separates doctors and patients, almost transforming everyone into an isolated individual. People can see each other, but they can’t really get in contact. In the post-Covid-19 world, some kind of invisible separation has formed between people. The distances are quantified by a tiny unit of measurement—the thickness of the plastic film—but they are still there.

“Plastique Fantastique uses the art of space to make us face the current situation directly and think about the relationship between people, fear, and the unknown”

By keeping this in mind, we should also consider how MOBILE PPS tackles the issue of human fear. Though similar to a capsule in the film Alien or a submarine cruising the deep ocean, MOBILE PPS has an important feature separating it from those: Its transparency. Capsules and submarines are built with thick metal shells as a way to separate people from scary environment such as space or the ocean. MOBILE PPS, on the contrary, is a light and soft protection, in which doctors can still communicate with the outside, and patients are not excluded like terrifying creatures. The ubiquitous virus makes us panic, but it doesn’t mean that we should abandon everything of the outside world, where virtually the whole of our social world, including relatives and friends, still live. Plastique Fantastique uses the art of space to make us face the current situation directly and think about the relationship between people, fear, and the unknown.

During the pandemic, many governments required people to cover their mouths and noses when going out. Besides wearing a mask, are there other possible strategies? Plastique Fantastique’s iSphere is an answer to this question. Made up of two transparent hemispheres that are glued together, iSphere can wrap around one’s head, isolating us from the outside world. At a first glance, iSphere’s forms are an object of awe. It looks like a transparent version of an astronaut’s helmet. Its transparent, almost invisible structure can separate us from the external environment, while at the same time making us feel as if we were still in close contact with each other. This in turn greatly reduces the sense of separation. iSphere is an interesting artwork. On the one hand, it playfully mocks some idiosyncratic solutions that some people have embraced in order to cover their faces for protection. On the other hand, it also seriously encourages us to face a novel situation where people have to be isolated from others and the external environment.

These two artworks somewhat mix architecture and sculpture. They build a space just like architecture would do, but also shape a volume as if they were sculpture. Thanks to the use of simple geometric shapes, they are both formalist and minimalist in their nature. However, when considering their expressiveness, they look at Post-modernism. The works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, pioneers of site-specific art, come immediately to mind. Although there are significant differences, they share similar ways to address and engage people, space, and the environment. These two works by Plastique Fantastique mix artistic meaning and functionality in ways that defy common understanding of art.