Digital art installation turns into living organism at Bratislava’s Stará Tržnica

“It was as if I had found myself in a pool of blood that was moving with me while I walked.”

Jana Kováčová admits her first impression of Inner Life, an interactive art installation custom-created for Stará Tržnica (Old Market Hall) in the centre of Bratislava, was “a bit scary”. But that impression quickly changed, she told the Slovak Spectator.

Inner Life by Maotik (source: Jana Liptáková)

The shape and colour of the organic forms screened on the floor changed, and she felt herself being immersed into them. As accompanying music played, she says she let herself be carried away by the atmosphere.

“The part I liked most was the bit resembling the sea. It was magic, as if I had found myself in a shoal of fish,” she said.

As as if in a shoal of fish. (source: Martina Mlčúchová)

Kováčová is just one of the many people to have visited Inner Life, the latest visual work of the prominent French digital artist Mathieu Le Sourd, who creates under the artistic name Maotik, in the capital.

Le Sourd’s work has already featured in the Biela Noc (White Night) multi-genre annual festivals in Bratislava and Košice and it was the organisers of these popular festivals who approached Maotik to come up with a tailor-made installation for the Old Market Hall, which is a cultural and community hub.

“The immersive interactive installation Inner Life was created especially for this occasion and had its world premiere here, which is very important, and a source of joy, for someone like Maotik,” Zuzana Pacáková, festival art director, told The Slovak Spectator. “We worked together for several months on its development and its visuals, and we are very pleased with the high attendance and positive audience responses [to it].”

Inner Life by Maotik in Stará Tržnica (17 photos)

Immersion into Inner Life