Inflatable Refugee
Giant character art
“Schellekens’ and Peleman’s art practice enters into a direct dialogue with our society. It goes often in direct confrontation with the public, provoking and inviting them to be part of the artistic expression that often only can exist by the presence of the viewer. They activate the public and emphasize on the ‘art for all’-idea, but never without losing the focus on the artistic inherent quality. Their works invite to reflect and question accepted realities in a way that their body of art is strongly connected with human nature and society.Their works and performances are at the same time iconic and embedded in social networks, they relate to all of us.”
Jan Moeyaert: 'intendant Kunstenfestival Watou'
Product groups: Giant inflatables
Applications: Art and Design
Briefing
After presenting the concept of the inflatable refugee we decided to work with pictures of a real human model in order to get the perfect briefing about position, clothing and colors.
Project
Because of the complexity of a human character X-Treme made a clay model of the refugee model. This ancient technology gives an excellent result to human characters and is really linked to crafmanship which the artists appreciated. It is a great pleasure to witness natural reactions of artists when their inflatable baby is born i.e. it is inflated for the first time … they loved their inflatable refugee although they were worried about the distant 6 m high inflation during the biennale in Venice ..
Events
November 2015 : Kick off during Biennale Venice of 3 new creations : Broosistan, Inflatable Refugee and Drowning Wo/Man
May 2016: Inflatable Refugee will travel to Uppsala, Sweden
May 2016: Inflatable Refugee will sail from Helsingør to Copenhagen with the Hawila, a 25 meter long two-masted wooden boat from 1935.
August 2016: Inflatable Refugee will be on display at the Veijle Art Museum ‘Floating Art’ exhibition in Denmark – A drone picks up the arrival and makes a fantastic movie.
September 2016: ‘Inflatable Refugee’ will stay in the city of Mechelen for two months.
Maire Bart Somers officially welcomes the arrival of the inflatable refugee.
2017 June, ‘Inflatable Refugee’, Behind the Wire, Victoria Museum, Melbourne, Australia
Exclusive drone video
Go take a look at their website and their Facebook page.
In the press and media
2015
- Inflatable Refugee, Drowning Wo/Man and Broosistan (Venice), Raidue, Caterpillar, 17/11
- Inflatable Refugee, Drowning Wo/Man and Broosistan (Venice), VRT, 16/11
- Inflatable Refugee, Drowning Wo/Man and Broosistan (Venice), Gazet van Antwerpen, 17/11
- Inflatable Refugee, De Morgen, 17/11
- Inflatable Refugee, Huffington Post, 17/11
- Inflatable Refugee, Corriere della Sera, 17/11
- Inflatable Refugee, La repubblica- Nuova di Venezia, 16/11
- Inflatable Refugee, Il gazettino, 17/11
- Inflatable Refugee, My Art Guides, 16/11
- Inflatable Refugee, Artribune, 16/11
- Inflatable Refugee, Sky Arte, 16/11
- Inflatable Refugee, Griot Magazine, 16/11
- Inflatable Refugee, Art Special Day, 18/11
- Inflatable Refugee, Venezia Today, 16/11
- Inflatable Refugee, Il Mattino di Padova, 16/11
2016
- Inflatable Refugee, Op.Recht.Mechelen, VTM News (national Belgian TV), 10/9
- Inflatable Refugee, Op.Recht.Mechelen, RTV (local Belgian TV), 10/9
- Inflatable Refugee, Op.Recht.Mechelen, GvA (online) and GvA (paper), 10/9
- Inflatable Refugee, Op.Recht.Mechelen, HLN, 10/9
- Inflatable Refugee & Broosistan, Op.Recht.Mechelen, GvA, 8/9
- Inflatable Refugee, AJ+, 24/8
- Inflatable Refugee, Floating Art expo, Kunsten.Nu, 23/8
- Inflatable Refugee, 3sat Kulturpalast, German TV, 2/7
Copenhagen, Denmark
- Inflatable Refugee, Mistura Urbana, 9/6
- Inflatable Refugee & Moving Stories, CBS News, 23/5
- Inflatable Refugee, New York Times, 23/5
- Inflatable Refugee, Washington Post, 23/5
- Inflatable Refugee, TRT, Turkish TV, 23/5
- Inflatable Refugee, VTM News, Belgian TV, 23/5
- Inflatable Refugee, VRT News, Belgian TV, 23/5
- Inflatable Refugee, Metro Toronto, Canada, 23/5
- Inflatable Refugee, El Nuevo Herald, Mexico, 23/5
- Inflatable Refugee & Moving Stories, CPH Post, Denmark, 23/5
- Inflatable Refugee & Moving Stories, The Local DK, Denmark, 23/5
- Inflatable Refugee, BFM, French TV, 23/5
- Inflatable Refugee, Kunstforum, Germany, 23/5
- Inflatable Refugee & Moving Stories, The Creators Project, France, 23/5
Uppsala, Sweden
- Moving Stories and Inflatable Refugee, Swedish National Television, 20/5
- Moving Stories and Inflatable Refugee, UNT, Sweden, 20/5
- Moving Stories and Inflatable Refugee, Damn Magazine, Germany, 20/5
- Moving Stories and Inflatable Refugee, Urdesign Magazine, 25/5
Antwerp, Belgium
- Moving Stories and Inflatable Refugee, Sapo 24 (Portugal), 8/2
- Moving Stories and Inflatable Refugee, Toronto Star, 6/2
- Moving Stories and Inflatable Refugee, Metro News Canada, 6/2
- Moving Stories, Inflatable Refugee and Drowning Wo/Man, ATV, 5/2
More media for Inflatable Refugee
"In the beginning of a project, we received expert's technical advice and X-Treme could always quickly move for last minute adaptations and repairs due to the intensive travelling and heavy duty installations" This iconic inflatable project gave us international presence due to global migration crisis
Wow, this is something we want to create!
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