Flow Gate

site specific installation commissioned by and created in collaboration with
Markus Bader of raumlaborberlin architecture collective, as part of his Fountain House
co-produced by the Goethe Institute Montreal and the Quartier des Spectacles,
part of the Future Anterior program of La Biennale de Montréal (BNLMTL)
August 27 - October 26, 2014, Montreal (Canada)

double-sided mirrors, aluminium rods, steel cables, LED lights & motion detectors
8.5 feet x 5.5 feet x 13 feet

A canopy, highly reactive to its environment, which as water makes visible the subtle variations and the encounters between flows of surrounding and distant light, of wind and passers-by. Each part independently, then the whole of the structure is destabilized, quivers. It jiggles and shakes itself, scarily and magically. An overhead structure, both to stop and amplify flows, make visible the invisible connection between all elements in the site, and man in it.



A sun in the fountain. A parasite penetrating through architecture, amplifying, giving direct light from within to its environment, a bonding to the presence of water. A hanging plant, a sculpture, a mobile reproducing the flicker of light when at the water's edge all the elements of the environment are transformed under the gaze of a permanent mutation.

The experience of place, a direct union with the materiality of the present elements. Their extensions create space around the individual. Water is an amplifier, a multiplier of these correlations. Light is a vector, which can bind water and the elements that limit or occupy space. It shows the change in relations, coexistence. A damp environment combines and multiplies light revolutions making perceptible the invisible but palpable dimensions of reality, just waiting to be captured, blocked, reflected, amplified, appearing only to escape. Un soleil dans la fontaine. Un parasite pénétrant, traversant l’architecture, l’amplifiant, donnant de la lumière directe, de l'intérieur à son environnement, un liant à la présence de l'eau. Une plante suspendue, une sculpture, un mobile reproduisant le scintillement de la lumière lorsqu’au bord de l'eau tous les éléments de l’environnement se transforment sous le regard en une mutation permanente.





Cécile Martin wishes to thank Markus Bader, Kaisa Tikkanen
with a special thank to Raphaëlle Steis-Tassé and Gregory Smith
as well as Julie Méalin, Victor Emmanuel Raja Sandrasagra and Rod Shearer.

funded by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec