The Kraken

The Kraken is an ephemeral installation that inhabited the central esplanade of the historical site that hosts Les SUBS and the fine arts university of Lyon ENSBA. The Kraken in few figures: 25 m wide, 15 m high, 180 m of tentacles, 1000 m² of reclaimed wood, 6 weeks of construction, 30 professionals and students mobilized.

It was made possible by the fund of Mondes Nouveaux, a support program for the design and production of artistic projects initiated by the French government as part of the Culture component of France Relance and Next Generation EU.

A chilling effect takes place upon one’s skin when realizing the size of the Kraken, the wooden structure that crawled out of the water belongs to another epoch or maybe a different history. Yet here it is, spreading its tentacles over the “Les SUBS and ENSBA Lyon” to bring people together.

The sublime aura and the chilling effect rapidly disappear once we walk through the Kraken, touch it, and discover more making the beast less terrifying. It hosts events and spectacles, and at the same time it stands to be looked at from distance.

The Kraken can be approached in three different ways. First, using the pronoun “it” is problematic; the Kraken is “alive”, and the installation approach to it, gives it a lively hood. We can touch it, walk it in it, climb it, at the same time it’s organic, not from a representational point of view but an actual one. In other words, the wood itself has a “life”: it breathes, shrinks, it changes through time. Size and the aesthetics of the sublime play a minor role in this case; since usually, one can’t touch a sublime work of art, ask yourself, can you touch Michel Angelo’s David? It’s possibile to slide your hand upon the shining surface of Jeff Koons’s giant Balloon Dog?

Another aspect the Kraken represents is the ability to question the architectural integrity, betting on the paradoxical sense of collapse VS standing tall. But the sense of fragility that floats in the sphere created by the Kraken, also conveys the ability to bring “life” to a structure that is functional yet doesn’t respect the traditional space measurements and the pre-set designs. A grotesque figure, where “inside” and “outside” are vaguely distinguished, activating a process of inclusion. It’s more than a gest; it’s an ongoing praxis as if elements of poor architecture, false- instability, and mythological indetermination entangle together to re-introduce human activity as a form of dialogue, play, and discovery.

A third way to look at the Kraken is to consider it a “beast”, a political figure that comes from outside the realm of traditional ontological categories. The Beast has the ability to run freely bypassing traditional boundaries, his freedom is only limited by its desires, and unexpected-free-will. This is what makes the Kraken and its location such a representation of bypassing the traditional order of things, even though it doesn’t “belong”, it is present, threatening what’s around it, leaving us to wonder and ask, What else it might do? Where else it might go?

After dismantling the structure, UV Lab and Les SUBS ensured that all materials were repurposed and given new life. Instead of sending everything to the scrapyard, they took steps to adhere to the principles of the circular economy. Each component of the Kraken was carefully salvaged and donated to construct a communal market cover in the suburbs of Lyon. This dedication to sustainability reflects the commitment to responsible resource management and the desire to make a positive, lasting impact on the community long after the project’s completion.