Home Case History Wave11 a Calais

Wave11 a Calais

• DESCRIPTION

  The sculpture Wave 11 is displayed as the opening piece at the entrance to the exhibition Maurizio Galante & Tal Lancman: Haute Couture, Design, Art—which opened on June 13, 2026—exploring the fluid, interconnected boundaries between fashion, design, and the visual arts. Curated by Lydia Kamitsis, the exhibition fosters a dialogue between sculptural garments and furnishing objects; far from imposing a vertical, hierarchical structure, it highlights how creativity can transcend traditional boundaries. The exhibition is jointly hosted at two venues until January 3, 2027: the Cité de la Dentelle et de la Mode (Museum of Lace and Fashion) and the Musée des Beaux-Arts (Museum of Fine Arts) in Calais. The event has been designated an "Exhibition of National Interest" by the French Ministry of Culture. The arts of tailoring, weaving, and embroidery move beyond the mere textile context to embrace a wide range of materials.
  Feathers, beads, ceramics, straw, lace, textured silks, metal, glass, and leather are "transfigured" into fluid, iridescent elements, transforming garments and objects into living sculptures—true "objects of desire." The beautifully illuminated metallic waves of Wave 11 thus serve as an ideal introduction to the exhibition. Conceived by the duo and crafted by Planium with meticulous attention to the designers' original vision, this significant sculpture was first unveiled at Milan Design Week in 2022. In its full-scale version—measuring 1.7 by 2.7 meters and composed of 200 exquisite brass and oxidized copper panels—the work interpreted the Fuorisalone’s water theme, as the name itself suggests. This work embodies the essence of the exhibition through its multifaceted nature: symbolic, material, conceptual, artistic, creative, technical, and aesthetic. The oxidized, laser-cut waves—created through controlled processes—evoke antique lace and coral eroded by sea salt. “WAVE11 is both an object and an installation in which metal and emotion merge into a sculpture.
  It features a layering of metal elements whose surfaces bear witness to the interaction between materials. A variety of timeless textures evokes a coral reef teeming with life, lunar landscapes, or delicate patterns resembling fine lace.
  Time and Energy are the fundamental elements of this experimental project, which aims to tell the story of transformation by capturing a single instant... what the Japanese call ‘MU’: a moment so close to nothingness that it becomes everything.” (M. Galante and T. Lancman).