Climb up an architectural parasite in Stará Tržnica

Contemporary visual art does not always have to be admired from a distance. Some pieces enable people to literary immerse themselves in it. This is true for the TUBE, an installation in Stará Tržnica in the very centre of Bratislava. From now until August 29, those interested can take off their shoes and climb up a monumental cutworm made from blue nets hanging from the ceiling of the old market hall.

TUBE in Stará Tržnica (11 photos)

​

Lost in Bratislava? Impossible with this City Guide! (source: Spectacular Slovakia)

​“It was a strange feeling, like crawling via the bowels of a giant animal, but I cannot decide whether I liked when other visitors made the tube rock,” said Irena Kolesáivá after she exited the TUBE.

The TUBE is an installation by the Austrian and Croatian group Numen/For Use. Their pieces were presented in Slovakia during a previous Biela Noc/White Night festival.

This site-specific climbing frame for kids and adults puts a visual installation, scenography and autonomous architecture in direct dialogue with the space of the historic market hall. This immersive, 900-metre-long net installation is made of two tunnel loops. Their physical experience of direct interaction with the human body stimulates and changes the perception of a known space in a new context, according to the project leaflet.

“Its organic shape and the semi-transparent, soft material it's made out of emphasizes the feeling of levitation inside a statue which cleverly parasitizes the existing architecture,” write the artists. “This way it creates a mental interspace and blurs the boundary between the private and the public.”

Entrance to the installation is free and it is possible to climb it free of charge during weekday afternoons except for Monday.