ROPE IS COMING_ENG

ROPE IS COMING_ENGLISH
ATELIER IEF SPINCEMAILLE
ROPE IS COMING
WHAT’S NEXT?
ROPE IS COMING. WHAT’S NEXT?
For both ourselves and the host a search begins... “Do
something with me” says Rope. The question now is: what?
How can we integrate Rope into the local context? This
context can be diverse: a landscape, a building, a statue or
monument, an event, an historical context, a neighborhood
or neighborhood operation, but also a family or even an
individual.
PROSPECTING
To discover these contexts, an in-person inspection is normally
conducted during which Ief Spincemaille, together with the help
of the host, visit different locations and stakeholders to identify
potential inspiring contexts for Rope. Based on this research, a
selection is made and a dramaturgy drawn up. The dramaturgy
broadly outlines which location Rope will visit each day and the
main interactions that will take place there, but it always leaves
room for improvisation. A Rope visit usually lasts between 5 and
10 days.
THE JOURNEY
Within Europe, Rope is transported on two bobbins (on
wheels), which fit into a van. Outside Europe, Rope is
transported on two pallets. Rope always consists of two pieces
of 30 meters, which are then invisibly attached to each other.
During the trip we are usually with 2 or 3 people. If Ief comes
alone, the host must provide two people who accompany
Ief during the hours when the visual performances take
place. These people help to handle Rope, but also interact

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with the public. They communicate the story of Rope, share
newspapers from previous editions and are alert for possible
interesting leads and opportunities for improvisation.
After a day outside, Rope is rolled up and stored somewhere
safe and dry for the night. The host provides a good storage
location and arranges the transport.
Ief writes a journal each evening which is translated into
English by Atelier Ief Spincemaille and translated into the
local national language by the host. Atelier Ief Spincemaille
always ensures that photos are taken of the excursion, but it
is highly advisable that the host also schedules a professional
photographer. The journal and the photos are then shared
via various communication channels. See the sub-heading
‘Communication’.
Afterwards, the journal is designed and printed in newspaper
format by Atelier Ief Spincemaille. The newspapers can
then be distributed to the places where Rope was a guest.
Depending on the agreement made, the host receives x
number of newspapers.
USES
All the different things you can do with Rope usually come back
to one of these four forms: you can walk with it (WALK), you can
create a social sitting, lying, hanging space or play area with it
(SOCIAL SPACE), you can use it to sculpt and add it as a visual
element to the existing context, such as a building or statue
(SCULPTURE) and you can use it to perform choreographies and
make it move in various forms with the help of different people
(CHOREOGRAPHY).

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ATELIER IEF SPINCEMAILLE
COMMUNICATION
The introduction text of Rope (see attachment 1) is one half
of the artwork. The other half is the object during the visual
performances. It is essential that the introduction text is not
adapted and that it is always communicated literally. Outside
of this, you are free to announce the project in your own way.
We explicitly try to avoid presenting the project as a work of
art and Ief as an artist. We are X and Y traveling with a big
rope. Already connecting with a certain group (artists) often
results in less openness to the people and places where Rope
is a guest. And for many groups, art remains a dangerous
stranger.
Rope has no gender. Try to say “it” whenever possible, and
if you need a definite article, change the structure of your
sentence.
We use the following media channels: a website with all
information, newspapers printed with the journals of previous
journeys, the daily e-mail from Rope to the subscribers (on all
journeys people are invited to become a subscriber to Rope’s
newsletter journal) and the social media channels Facebook
and Instagram.
We always try to plug this media into the existing network
of our host (the museum, the city or the festival that Rope
has been invited to) and to the existing local networks and
communication channels of the local organizations and
neighborhoods where the visual performances take place.
Suppose we work with a community center: do they have a
Facebook page, a newsletter, a Whatsapp group on which our
communication can ride?
Use the word “connection” sparingly in your communication.
Of course, Rope brings people together and must be able to
connect with a certain context in order to be something, but
this connection is rooted in imagination. Rope connects so
Website Rope:
https://www.rope.blue
Website Atelier Ief Spincemaille:
https://www.iefspincemaille.com
Online Rope Journals and opt-in for the newsletter:
https://www.rope.blue/JOURNAL
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/iefspincemaille/
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/iefspincemaille
CREDITS
Concept and realization: Ief Spincemaille
Technical Assistant: Bout De Beul
Textile Research: Charlotte Stuby, Leila Boukhalfa, Maude
Gyger and Jan Duerinck
With the support of the Flemish government and the European
Union within the programme Creative Europe.

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that it can write the story of the people it meets and places it
visits.
DOCUMENTS
The Rope dossier, the Rope manual and the Rope press kit can
be requested here: sander@iefspincemaille.com
A LITTLE ABOUT THE METHODOLOGY, IF YOU STILL HAVE
TIME…
Rope is part of a series of works that all use social sculptures:
large structures and objects such as a rope (Rope), a giant
modular sail (The Play) or temporary and fully autonomous
workstations (Muster Station). For these social sculptures,
the use and applied design in a social and societal context is
fundamental.
Rope is only half object. Half, because the identity of Rope is
not obvious. It needs people and a context to gain meaning
and fully become.
With these sculptures, Spincemaille goes in search of new
methods for making and exhibiting. Not from a formal
pleasure of playing with forms, but from a necessity for a
new language that blends better with his imagination and is
better adapted to the radically new planet on which we find
ourselves. Rope is a metaphor for this journey. Spincemaille
travels to unknown terrain with an absurdly large design
object, looking for new ways of making and exhibiting, looking
for what it means to create. Rope is a search for new futures,
and this with one of the oldest objects in history: a rope.
TO GET YOUR STARTED, WE HAVE THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
FOR YOU…
-Which local neighborhood or social initiatives are interesting
in the places where we want to work?

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-Are there potential partners in your existing network who
might be interested? Supermarkets, companies, (sports)
associations, schools, organisations, etc.?
-Are there monuments, architecture, squares, landscapes or
landmarks that could be interesting to integrate Rope on / in?
-Are there neighborhoods with a strong social bond where
Rope could stay?
-Are there natural landscapes that could be an interesting
backdrop (such as sea, mountain, landscape, desert) for Rope?
-Are there neighborhoods with a coherent identity, such as a
textile neighborhood, fishing port, carpenter’s neighborhood,
industrial zone, that can offer an interesting context for Rope?
-During the presence of Rope, are there any meaningful
events taking place where Rope could connect?
-Are there religious communities that can be an interesting
context?
-Are there small villages nearby where Rope could stay?
-Can Rope be taken on public transport?
-Are there local interesting or inspiring individuals that Rope
can visit at their home?

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TEAM
Ief Spincemaille
Anouk Focquier
Sander Dragt
Bout Debeul
Aafke Remant
ief@iefspincemaille.com
+32(0)494 08 35 49
anouk@berserk.be
+32(0)486 57 76 47
Agent Beserk art agency
sander@iefspincemaille.com
+32(0)488 62 53 30
Communications, PR
Workshop guy
admin@iefspincemaille.com
business and finance
assistant
ATELIER IEF SPINCEMAILLE
and sales
LOOCV
J.P. Minckelersstraat 64
3000 Leuven, Belgium
V.A.T. BE0688.555.587
www.iefspincemaille.com
Concept and realization - Ief Spincemaille
Technical assistant - Bout De Beul
Textile research: Charlotte Stuby, Leila Boukhalfa,
Maude Gyger and Jan Duerinck.
Photo credits - Ire Tsui, Danny Willems, Vincent Noir,
Carolin Weinkopf, Pieter Michiels, Marilyn De Smet,
Jan Duerinck and Wim Storme.