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.
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.