Design – French design duo Pinaffo & Pluvinage has created En Cascade, a mesmerising pavilion made from cardboard that comes to life without electricity, only using sand falling through its mechanisms.
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EN CASCADE pavilion by Pinaffo & Pluvinage – All photos and video by Pinaffo & Pluvinage.
“From the outside, the movements traversing the walls of this gigantic machine appear to be produced by an array of high-tech motors and electronics.” Explain Marion Pinaffo and Raphaël Pluvinage. “It’s only once inside the machine’s inner workings that one realises the animations come to life thanks to the sand flowing in cascades through each mechanism.”
Recharged with sand by the spectators, each compartment of the En Cascade installation has an autonomy of about ten minutes. “The mechanisms are brimming with tricks to generate movements as sophisticated as those a programmed motor could have produced—synchronisation, repetitions, back-and-forths, precise stops, loops, random or controlled, and more.”
Pinaffo & Pluvinage is a French studio based in Lille exploring new design paths using simple yet intriguing materials. Like in previous projects, with the En Cascade pavilion, the studio highlights the contrast between the most complex and subtle effects created using the most low-tech materials.
“For the last four years, we have been observing, manipulating and experimenting with the technologies surrounding us. Guided by curiosity and intuition, we analyse the physical systems and forms that operate in the background of the virtual world and explore the interactions that can take place between the mathematical logic of automata, graphic design, and human creative sensibility.”
En Cascade was first exhibited at the magnificent classified site of Anse de Paulilles, on the coast of Pyrénées Orientales (utilising sand directly from the beach!), and we are now seeking a new exhibition venue. This project was produced with the support of “Mondes Nouveaux,” a program aiding the realisation of artistic projects by the French Ministry of Culture, with the assistance of the Coastal Conservatory.
All photos and videos are courtesy of Pinaffo & Pluvinage.
