Movement Matters
Movement Matters is a three-year long pedagogical research project based at the ArtScience Interfaculty in The Hague. Dutch architect and researcher Renske Maria van Dam and spatial artist Cocky Eek host this project to explore the potentials of the Japanese spatiotemporal concept of ma for art education.
On October 11th, 1978, the exhibition Ma: Space-Time in Japan opened its doors in Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. In this exhibition, Japanese architect Arata Isozaki introduces the concept of ma to the European-American context by presenting nine spatial installations in which ma shows up in different modalities of Japanese thought and action. To bring ma alive, the catalogue of Ma: SpaceTime in Japan – as initially presented in Paris – was studied by means of situated experimentation. Rather than making an exact replica of the exhibition, the works presented in the catalog triggered a new event which continued the creative process in new iterations.
On October 11th, 2018, exactly 40 years after the opening of the exhibition in Paris, Spacious presented an iteration on this exhibition at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of TU Delft. Alternative to architectural design understood as ‘action at a distance’ in the new iteration, Moments of Ma, architectural design equals ‘action on action’. When the performer opens the curtain a stream of light fills the room with reflections, a puppeteer appears, and copper rods create spatial constellations.
Partners
ArtScience Interfaculty | Architecture Theory Chair of the TU Delft
Participants
Ivan Čuić, Renske Maria van Dam, Flora van Dullemen, Cocky Eek, Zoë d’Hont, Þórir Höskuldsson, Anni Nöps, Sébastien Robert, Lianne van Roekel, Daan Loor and Victor Ynzonides.
Courses
2016 Movement Matter I: ArtScience Interfaculty, The Hague
2017 Movement Matter II: ArtScience Interfaculty, The Hague
2018 Movement Matter III: ArtScience Interfaculty, The Hague
Events
Spatial Performance: Moments of Ma , October 2018
Mapping Rythm Intensive Cartography Seminar TU Delft, October 2018
Publications
Van Dam, R.M. (2021) Grasping Ma. In: A. Radman and S. Kousoulas (Eds.) Architectures of Life and Death. Rowman and Littlefield International.
Contact for course material
Spatial Performance ‘Moments of Ma’, Faculty of Architecture TU Delft, October 2018