I work under the name MANON MALAN,
I am a visual researcher; I collect images & objects and transform or play with their identity. My interest is to create environments and objects that are accessible and interactive. With my work I aim to provoke and I invite to engage. I use art as a tool to share stories, to create reflections on our environment and make emotional connections.
With a versatile approach, I choose objects and materials that excites me, I apply different techniques of craft and I combine, textiles design, garments, sculptures, lighting, painting, collages, posters, furniture, and large-scale interactive installations with a sustainable philosophy. All my garments are gender neutral. Participation is a strong aspect of my work and I intend to collectively explore social structure and emotional and physical borders. I celebrate emotional excess and interconnections. I hope to create relationships between the environment and the participants.
I understand the city as a library and research-source. Through engaging and observing my urban environment I aim to create a visual language that brings new ways to reflect. I wish my work to display the complexity of cities and their beauty - the multicultural, the multilayered and the multilingual. I am a collector of visuals, materials, and found object from urban and industrial areas. I combine these found material matters in new works. I am interested in materials’ value, quality, texture, tactile qualities, distortion, history and future. What also excites me is the city structures, monuments and historical sculptures. Structures such as architectures, barricades, infrastructure and public space are the bodies that carries my work. I critically reflect on city’s dominant narratives and power structures. One of my interest is to up-cycle, by playing with the places’ multiple identity, add new layer, and hereby expand meaning through collaging. Through my design, I seek to challenge and subvert meaning and value, and to create new forms of public places that celebrate diversity, inclusion, and social justice.
I hope to inspire.
BUISNESS, is a collective art space and studio of @_jakecaleb @ghislain_amar @manonmalan based in Rotterdam.
