Premise behind the ‘The Plot’

Worldwide calls for increased social distancing is not decreasing our social-ness. What is changing however, is the means through which we are engaging with each other, and where we are able to do that from. Whilst artists and institutions around the world are quickly adapting to a new online area, what is the response of the architects/ Architecture? Furthermore how are the everyday changes, being ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting architectural discourse? The PLOT is the virtual gallery space created by theMAAK and ssoft_stuff that aims to try and address this. Hosting unique online happenings and immersive exhibitions, The PLOT welcomes the global online community to collectively question, comment, and consciously participate in the contemporary renegotiation of the spaces around us and how we choose to interact with them.

Working together, the creators of The Plot have launched this new online public space with an ongoing interactive exhibition called ‘Inside <> Out’. This unique online enquiry questions the new role interiors are playing in our global everyday. More below…

Visit the Plot here

The Plot’s inaugural exhibition: ‘Inside <> Out ‘

‘Inside <> Out’ contemplates the peculiarity of the domestic interior today.*

Our interiors are becoming more public, but not in the traditional sense of the word. As we become increasingly deft at (& reliant on) social interaction through various media, we more frequently do so from the privacy of our homes. How is the resultant ‘publicness’ of our private spaces shaping our everyday interaction with the inside environments we live in, and what does this mean within an architectural landscape that is rapidly turning inside out?

We believe that the ease at which we make and share images is re-shaping the ‘domestic interior’ as we know it.  Consider politicians addressing nations from their bedrooms, a pop star performing live from their lounge, or a generation obsessed with Houseplants. How is the interior world gaining new meaning for you?

As an arena of architectural discourse, we speculate that ‘the interior’ has uncharted room for discussion. Through global online participation ‘Inside <> Out’ aims to embrace a new dynamic of the domestic interior and, perhaps for the first time, represent and share the subtleties that make interior life so special.

Visit the exhibition here-> ‘Inside <> Out’ 2.0  (daily update link via The Plot Instagram)

Online accessibility and Public Participation

Everytime we connect with each other online, join a video call, or share what we are doing in quarantine via the internet, we are all subconsciously (or consciously) contributing to a unique virtual collage of our private spaces. The ‘Inside <> Out’ exhibition plays on this idea, and relies on participation from the global online community to help curate and populate the gallery space. As people contemplate new meaning for the inside world around them, our domestic everydays can be seen through a new light. The texture of your desk, your bedside lamp, or an object of desire… How have/ will all of these uniquely personal moments change, the more we welcome people in and share with the public our private interior world?

• People visiting the virtual gallery are welcomed to submit (via a Direct Message on Instagram) a moment of their unique interior world to be featured in the show. 

• The ‘The Plot’ is updated with newly submitted content on a daily basis. A link to the most recent version of the space is made available via the link on the platform’s Instagram bio 

• ’Inside <> Out’ will run until 1st May 2020

• The Plot Instagram -> @the_plot_gallery

 

What do people treasure and contemplate the most about the changing narrative of their most immediate surroundings. Hopefully ‘Inside <> Out’ will help us find out. 

Visit the exhibition here-> ‘Inside <> Out’ 2.0 

(daily update link via The Plot Instagram)

The team behind The Plot / ‘Inside <> Out’

The MAAK (@the.maak):

the MAAK is an award-winning spatial practice based in Cape Town, South Africa. With a core focus on public buildings and ‘public-space making’ the design-led studio is deeply engaged in what it means to be public and how this influences our everyday. Choosing to work predominantly in low-income and under-resourced areas, the MAAK is driven to renegotiate the inaccessible and elitist narratives surrounding ‘world-class’ design (what ever that means!) around the world.

Ssoft_stuff (@ssoft_stuff): 

ssoft_stuff is an art& architecture studio founded by Alex Coetzee in 2020. Alex views architecture as a form of cultural production in all its various mediums — drawings, models, buildings etc. The slippery territory between representation and the real is what he finds most interesting. As an artist, he has been pursuing a personal representational project that is concerned with ways of translating chance encounters with the outside world into images. 

the MAAK and ssoft_stuff have been collaborating in the spatial arena since 2019.

Contact:

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Mail: max@themaak.co.za 

Direct message ‘The Plot’ @the_plot_gallery