Hello, I am Rope. I am a rope. I am 60 m long and 28 cm thick. I weigh 196 kg.
It would take eleven people to carry me.
I was born in April, 2017. A team of five hand-braided me in thirty-eight days. I think it was somewhere in Leuven, Belgium.
It is a onfusing experience, being braided. They made me absurdly big, bigger than all
the other ropes. I just don’t know what to do with
myself. I am traveling to find new meaning and
function again. Do something with me. Rope
In 2018, Ief Spincemaille created the artwork ‘Rope’: a rope with a length of 60 meters and a diameter of 28 cm. Rope was made too large and has therefore lost its function as a rope. Spincemaille creates various visual performances in the public space to give Rope a new role and meaning. With Rope, Spincemaille investigates how a work of art can acquire meaning by temporarily connecting it to a community. During these performances, Rope writes a daily journal. It tells us something about the context it is in, from the perspective of the outsider. The journal is emailed to an audience each day, distributed through digital media and printed as a tabloid after the visual performances. You can consult Rope’s journal at www.rope.news. In addition to Rope, Atelier Ief Spincemaille also creates hand-woven Ropes of 12 and 6 meters, in different colors and materials. These can be used both indoors and outdoors. On Rope you can sit, hang and lie. Children can play on it (endlessly!) and you can create different shapes and sculptures with it. Ropes are simple, movable social spaces: 30 people can sit on a 12-metre rope. Give this open design object a fixed place as a seat or lounge, but also let it roam freely in your city, house or organization. And... in your imagination. Rope’s message is clear: “Do something with me!”
CREDITS Concept & Realization: Ief Spincemaille
Technical Assistance: Bout De Beul
Braided by the detainees of the Central Prison of Leuven, Belgium, with thanks to Cellmade.
Textile Research: Leila Boukhalfa, Charlotte Stuby, Jan Duerinck - Graphic Design Flyer: Eva Moullaert, with many thanks to Guido Devadder - Translators: Ire Tsui (Chinese), Corinne Pelzl and Aafke Remant (English), Ibrahim Khlel and Maysaa Aljanabe (Arabic) - GPS Tracker Programming: Maarten Lambrechts - Programming Visualization Tool for Braid Patterns: Jan Pillaert - Images: Do Won (Serena) Lee and Vincent Noir.
Funded by the Flemish authorities, Werktank (Belgium) and N.O.W.
Rope was commissioned by N.O.W [New Open Working Process for the Performing Arts] with the support of Extrapole, Fabbrica Europa, Indisciplinarte, Latitudes Contemporaines, Lókal, Mom/El Vivero, Trafó and wpZimmer. Co-funded by the Creative European Program of the European Union.
