Inside The Blue Hat

As a multifaceted and multi-disciplinary artist that experimented with many different techniques, Folon made several screen prints that he then often used to create posters. Serigraphy allowed an opacity and a density of colour palette he fancied. "Inside The Blue Hat" is a participatory project that allows the visitors to dive into Folon’s creative process and discover hands-on how he worked.

The Folon Foundation visitor enters the room with the big wall filled with posters. It’s impressive, but people rarely ask themselves the question: how are those posters made? How do you achieve such wonderful colour shades? Facing the poster wall, a device will be installed: it’s a screen printing table with integrated loud speakers. We hope to catch the visitor’s eye: what is it? Why is it there? He will discover, thanks to an informative blackboard next to it, that with this device, he can access to his own hands-on printing experience. At the end of the activity, he get his very own version of the poster called « Blue Shadow » (in a digital format).

During this practice, he will hear 3 different sounds alternating randomly: the voice of Folon himself, a sound of a real blade and general information about serigraphy.

How to use the device:

• Stand in front of the table

• Choose one colour in each colour palette by clicking on the digital screen next to you

• Grab the blade at the top of the horizontal screen and pull it towards you: you will see a layer of colour appearing.

• Repeat the movement 9 times for more layers to appear (9 layers of shaded colours have been in fact used to make this poster)

• Last layer = the image gets smaller and is ‘framed’

 

The visitor can now feel like a Jean-Michel Folon!

We initially wanted to enhance the visitor’s experience in the hands-on dimension of his discovering of the Folon’s Foundation. We felt that the participatory aspect was the missing part. Something that would let the visitor feel for a few moments like an artist.

Our choice of serigraphy can be explained by the fact that it’s a cool technique many people don’t really know about whereas colours treatment in serigraphy highly interested Folon.

Our serigraphy module could be used as an element of a bigger project that recreates a full palette of Folon’s technique. We thought that a real serigraph table would be too messy. A digital experience is more modern, yet more challenging to build 😉

It’s though for all kinds of public, but you need to be tall enough to stand comfortably in front of the table (a step is however foreseen for children)

Stand in front of the table (1)

Choose one colour in each colour palette by clicking on the digital screen in front of you (2)

Grab the blade at the top of the horizontal screen and pull it towards you: you will see a layer of colour appearing. (3)
Repeat the movement to have more layers appear

The building of the screen printing table includes:

• Rectangular wooden frame cut into an MDF plaque (1.5mm/dimensions: see sketch) (1)
• Rectangular plexiglass plaque(6)
• Sheet of tracing paper placed on top of the plexi 
• Wood cubes at the 4 angles to which two rails will be fixed in the length of the rectangle (3)
• Build a wooden blade with two holes at the extremities to insert it in the rails (4)
• Cut space for the tablet or smartphone in the front part of the MDF plaque (5)
• Place the camera on the back of the MDF plaque (6)
• Speakers integrated to the table at the front next to the smartphone (7)
• Computer underneath the table connected to the projector and to the smartphone and the camera

 

Our print screen table worked and witnessing all the steps of its realising was just amazing. One of our stronger points was definitively team spirit and hard work of highly motivated and talented people. We didn’t have time to install the printer and the internet connection inside the foundation did not allow sending the end result through email (using, for instance, a QR code).

Seeing the curious and daring visitors was extremely rewarding!

Mediator : Chiara TOMALINO (responsible for post-event exploitation) chiaratomalino@yahoo.it 

Graphic Designer : Guillaume MORVAN

Communicator : Tina VAN ROEYEN

Content Manager : Blandine SMILANSKY

Coder : Yann-Aël LE BORGNE, Pierre-Henri WIBAUT, wibautph@gmail.com 

Maker : Pierre MOENCH, pierre.moench@gmail.com 

Facilitator : Mathilde PAVAUT, mathilde.pavaut@gmail.com 

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