PRACTICE FOR THE LOVE OF THEORY

    

Maxime Prananto runs an artistic design and production practice. It intervenes in the domain of architecture and infiltrates art spaces. The practice consists of public and private commissions as well as autonomous work. It sometimes functions as a production studio for other artists and makers.

The practice deals with the simultaneous conception and production of objects, scenography, furniture, exhibitions and sculpture. While its output is varied, each undertaking relies on a voluntary set of conceptual and physical boundaries. This practice attempts to reserve a substantial portion of its efforts for theory and reflection.

Underlying themes of the practice include manufacturing, logistics and iconography in the built environment. The attempt within the practice is for work to materialize intelligently within certain circumstances and references without the result of a self-intelligent work. In this sense, the aim is to be neutral and to propose a matter-of-factness about the conditions in which work is being made. Nevertheless, all interventions reflect a sensitivity to the beauty of constraints and gather meaning throughout the entirety of their process. 

This practice is linked to several courses and studios in architecture and interior architecture at the University of Leuven.


Autocrat Table
2021 


Prototype developed for ‘SQ Central’, a group show by MANIERA

Low Table Autocrat Table consists of twelve identical, folded sheets of steel. Its name speaks to a system's capacity to consolidate, to self-inflict and to perpetuate previous decisions. The table can be read as evidence of both the feats and the strict limitations of standardisation. In the case of a table, this enforced uniformity is quite clearly imposed on a typology that doesn't need it.

Perhaps the reversal of modularity is at play here. What we know to be a singular table is forcefully divided into identical elements, which not only redefines its overall form, but equally births a new, mini-typology: that of a piece of steel which in and of itself makes no sense but when multiplied reinstates the idea of that table.

Once reassembled, unexpected details emerge from this process of division and unification. The elements' uniformity reflects a proportional relationship between compromise and consistency. What remains, in the form of a table, is a piece of evidence supporting only a self-imposed trajectory, a certain virtue in its coherence and a definite scrutiny towards linear thinking and its transformative power.



GalleryGallery 01: Principium
2024 


Bookshop Saint-Martin, Brussels, BE
Group show curated by Jonathan Robert Maj

Featuring Painter’s Floor (2024) and Garbage Chair (2021) Gallery Gallery is a curatorial project focusing on Contemporary Architecture that looks at exploring the intrinsic paradox of the discipline, or the impossibility of exhibiting architecture if not through an act of displacement.

Founded in Brussels in 2024 by Jonathan Robert Maj, Gallery Gallery celebrates the quality of architectural production by showcasing the works of both established and emerging artists and architects, locally and internationally, in the hopes of opening up the architectural discourse to a wider audience.
Gallery Gallery operates through punctual exhibitions, limited-edition prints and object series.

EXHIBITIONS
GG01, Principium, Group Show, Brussels, October 2024

Featuring:

A JDVIV
Pier Vittorio Aureli
Aglaia Konrad
Pezo Von Ellrichshausen
Maxime Prananto

Oasis
2024



Sculpture in collaboration with Shervin/e Sheikh Rezaei
Shown at:
L’Univers Unique, 2024, Menen BE
Curated by Benoit Villain, Chiel Vandenberghe & Henk Delabie


9th Biennial of Painting ‘Stories from the Ground’, 2024 Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle BE
Curated by Martin Germann

Stainless steel, UV-printed glass, rubber, cotton
When a woman and her lover, lying down, face to face and she curls, like wraps, her legs around the legs of the man, with the windows open, wide, that is the oasis. - Rebecca Horn

It seemed rather evident for Oasis' structural appearance to be dominated by the glass itself. By both internalizing and fragmenting each structural direction, Oasis' structure became more of a matrix than a clear backbone. Rather than being strong-armed, the glass is held as though by slender fingertips and lips.


Exhibition System - Modular Wall
2024


Flemish Architecture Institute - Arst Centre DE SINGEL
Commissioned by Vai and DE SINGEL

Design and full execution
Stainless steel, galvanized steel Due to rapidly increasing energy and running costs the arts centre's exhibition programme had come under severe pressure during 2022, meaning two possible strategies presented themselves. Either less programming would be allowed overall, leaving the exhibition hall in intermittent periods of non-use or the available space ought to be used more efficiently and facilitate a double schedule. As the main user of that space, the Flemish Architecture Institute proposed to explore the second option in close collaboration with the arts centre. A commission was given to propose a scenographic structure which allows for multiple exhibitions to be held in the same space. The ambition lies in a multitude of options for spatial configurations, maximum re-usability and display options.

The project first defines a base structure. This singular frame, built from stainless steel rectangular tubes, remains compatible with standardized materials and logistical systems, while being highly specific in its internal form. The frame uses deliberate asymmetries to achieve higher stiffness and lower weight. Each frame provides extensive connection patterns for shelving, grids, flat and angled surfaces and display cases. Those additional display elements are produced according to the needs of new users. Both the add-ons as well as the base frames are designed to be easily reproduced, expanded upon, repaired and broken down into recuperable elements with no cross contaminated base materials. The project does not use a single welded connection.

Multiple base frames can be joined, both shoulder to shoulder and in corners to divide the exhibition space or even enclose a small niche. The frames can be used with a basic steel facade or remain naked. This leaves plenty of possibilities for future scenographers and technical crews to create the exhibition space as needed.

While the project is ultimately born from a necessity to cut costs, it managed to provide an opportunity to properly equip both the institution and more crucially its exhibition makers to think ahead. In its eventual form, the modular structure expresses a nuanced neutrality, meaning it plays with conventions of standardization and flexibility while refusing to adopt a generic form. A proper scenography is not meant to be bland nor autonomous, but holds a delicate balance between specificity and serviceability.

ARCAM Gallery
2023 


Architecture Centre Amsterdam NL
Design and production of a scenographic infrastructure

i.c.w. dérive practice After years of temporary solutions for the centre's entrance space, ticketing and bookshop functions, a competition was held to rethink a functional infrastructure for the centre's operations, while also providing a sustainable base scenography for years to come. The proposal should offer a frame which allows for play, flexibility and endless reconfiguration in terms of spatial use and display purposes.  In collaborating with dérive practice (Brussels) and Kukka (Rotterdam), the proposed interventions attempted to deliver on all fronts.

A multifunctional display system (dubbed the framework) maximizes the available space for display, while leaving the general space intact. It spans two stories, piercing the strange, tapered void between the ground and first floor. The framework uses mostly tension - both horizontally and vertically - to clamp itself into place with minimal anchorage points to the existing structure. It provides regular connection patterns along its full height as well as light accessories and felt panels as easily manipulated means for display.

Alongside the framework, a series of modular, moveable cabinets and a series of textiles are put forward. In their technical and material detailing, they search for an intrinsic balance between rigidity, lightness and stiffness through the use of a slightly tapered form and integrated supports. They are specifically designed with both visual and physical accessibility in mind. A small set of additional elements allow for extensive display possibilities and functional diversity.

SQ Central
2021


SQ Central, Brussels BE
Group design project curated by MANIERA

Featuring Dedicated Desk (2020) The object balances a fragile composition and a comparatively large volume. It does so by carefully negotiating each connection and the overlap of separate elements. The entire object is cut from industrial grade, film-faced plywood panels. Their ends are cut and remain exposed, their faces are subtly identified as front and back by covering one side with an aluminium paint which closely matches the panel’s standard grey finish. This sets the stage for an amplified directionality in the object and an exaggerated autonomy in each component. 

The object’s functional composition is quite evident. A central, cross shaped spire provides individual storage and supports four workspaces in a pinwheel pattern. Each single workspace is met with a proportional amount of enclosure and openness, in which the aspect of asymmetry is crucial. On a much smaller scale, the stitch pattern of stainless-steel staples demonstrates a clear sequence in the object’s construction. This very detail serves to both demystify the object’s internal logic and somehow magnify its presence as an impossibly inflated cardboard model.


Schöne Sentimenten
2019 


Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle BE
A show curated by Charlotte Crevits

Scenography - Exhibition design
With Schöne Sentimenten, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens brings the potential of its collection to the fore. In the exhibition, core works from the museum's collection enter into dialogue with works from private collections that the MDD currently manages or would like to manage in the future. Therefore, The whole is not a classical but an imaginary collection presentation. Real works of art are combined with ‘absent’ works to emphasise the displayed collections' importance, capacity and possibilities.

A particular perspective


The core of the exhibition consists of pieces from Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Matthys-Colle and Cooreman collections, each of which played an important role in the acceptance of modern and contemporary art in Flanders. Together they virtually span the entire 20th century and, as a whole, provide a particular perspective on different styles, genres and movements, ranging from Flemish Modernism from the museum's own collection to post-war Belgian and American art from the Matthys-Colle collection and contemporary, global art from the Cooreman collection.

Schöne Sentimenten refers to an eponymous edition by artist Jan Vercruysse, which is given a central place in the exhibition. The title implicitly alludes to the beauty, but also the fragility of a museum collection. This suggestive collection presentation, placed in an individual scenography by Maxime Prananto, including the enormous series of posters by Michel François that are hung in and around the MDD, raises questions and provides possible solutions for the future of these collections.

FakeAuthentic: MISTAKES!

2022 


ASSAB ONE, Milan
Group show curated by AMARCHITECTRUE

Featuring Continuous Chandelier (2021) & Folded Table (2021)

Untitled
2022 


Antwerp, BE
Private commission

Natural rubber clad canvas doors

Table Setting
2023


Flemish Architecture Institute, Antwerp BE
Solo show curated by Petrus Kemme

Table Setting is an exhibition series on young architects from Flanders and Brussels, produced by DE SINGEL and the Flanders Architecture Institute (VAi). 
In each edition a young design practice presents itself on the square in front of DE SINGEL. A colourful set of tables supports the exhibition and acts as urban furniture, each time in a new configuration.

The fourth edition of Table Setting is built around an extension for the exhibition series' installation. Maxime Prananto created an element that combines several functions. But first and foremost, it forms a point of reference for the ever-changing arrangements of tables. In the central row of tables, Prananto gives an insight into his practice, using the process behind the new element for Table Setting as a
guide. The texts in this guide and on the tables thereby explore some aspects of his practice. Around the central new element and the row of tables, a number of triptychs with photographs by Prananto complete the exhibition. They illustrate his attentive view of the everyday environment. In their mutual confrontations, they evoke all kinds of associations, in a deliberate absence of explicit signification.


This exhibition unfolds as a polyptych, with more unknowns than equations. The design question consists of a few light chalk lines. The curatorial approach takes shape synchronously through the eyes of the institute, the makers, the producers, the writers. But if the object to be realized is still largely in flux, is there anything to curate at all? Yes, but only incrementally: the process tentatively announces itself more loudly. Gradually, interim results in the form of sketches, diagrams and correspondence gain in importance. They become independent and confront each other. They are then superimposed again. Materials, images and words not only form constellations but can strongly edit each other. This exhibition can  simply  be read as a lightly drawn contour, within which an endless and scale-less pleasure in confrontations plays out.
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