PROTOPLAST «ENDOBONE PALAECTOMY»

Introduction

‍
Protoplast invites the public to experience and enjoy artefacts, the core element of its production program since 2010. Artefacts are images, to be sure, autonomous images skillfully created by the Swiss team through a process combining reflection and chance. They are visually appealing and are not just for the pleasure of the eye. Emerging from concepts found in biology, philosophy, and psychoanalysis, artefacts address more subtle organs of perception, activating several levels of meaning and understanding. Because they stimulate nonverbal receptors, artefacts can be described as communicative entities existing as a tool rather than an end-product. Protoplast conceived an adapted diffusion strategy to capitalize on this potential, as can be appreciated in Endobone Palaectomy, this year’s poster campaign. Deployed throughout the city of Basel much like the ads that sell goods and services to the passerby, a set of 10 different motifs was displayed on over 100 billboards, bringing the art experience to all urban dwellers alike. Embedded among the cultural publicity associated to Art Basel, the posters may have gone unnoticed to onlookers. But it doesn’t matter: the benefit still applies. So, what did Endobone Palaectomy campaign provide to its unaware recipients? To some, the skeleton-like artefacts might evoke a frightening atomic future, peopled by mutant creatures bred from accident or human manipulation. Others might see the silhouette of fantastic animals, announcing perhaps a forthcoming sci-fi series. The optimist observer goes further, however, adding flesh to the creatures and seeing in them an open archetype of future life, or better yet, the armature of new ideas.  

Rose Marie Barrientos, PhD
art historian, Timișoara, Romania

‍