Corridors of culture

Maastricht – Artist Levi van Veluw has transformed the Marres House for Contemporary Culture with The Relativity of Matter installation.

• Visitors can move through hallways and rooms that change colour and bring them into contact with a series of different intense moods generated using a variety of materials
• The installation is designed to be adapted to different spaces, here fitting into the shape of the 350-square-metre 18th-century building that houses Marres

The immersive walk-through sculpture imitates an abstract dreamscape that enables people to move through diverse ambiences. The installation is set out like a disorientating maze, and Van Veluw’s intention is to explore themes of fear, loneliness and the loss of control. The designer worked on the piece for a year, developing each atmosphere in great detail to create precise environments that bear the detailed accuracy of the most carefully crafted film set.

Using total washes of colour, soundscapes and object arrangement, the different rooms and corridors submerge visitors in a sequence of feelings, some of which are uncomfortable and challenging. In one all-black corridor, faceted shapes are lined up on shelves, giving the impression of being inside a huge, previously undiscovered filing cabinet or an underground catacomb. Another room is decked out like a trippy chamber of royal blue geometric shapes. All of the spaces in the show use the regular arrangement of images and objects to build a sort of rhythm into the mind during the experience.