Three People Suspended in a Vacuum: Belgian Artist Lawrence Malstaf Presents SHRINK 01995 Performance in Halle

At the opening of the SILBERSALZ science and media festival in Halle, Germany, audiences witnessed an unusual performance titled «SHRINK 01995» by Belgian artist Lawrence Malstaf. Three volunteers from Halle and surrounding areas were suspended in the air between two layers of transparent plastic film, forming a structure that resembled a giant vacuum bag from the side. The screenings took place from October 28 to 30 at the Ulrichskirche concert hall, with details of the project reported by the author's official Instagram account, referenced by the Wave RBC.UA publication.

Performance Mechanics: Breathing as the Only Resource

The installation's operating principle was based on physical impact: when air was pumped out from the space between the two sheets of film, the material tightly clung to the participants' bodies, squeezing them from all sides. The volunteers could breathe under the stretched film solely through a separate tube supplying fresh air into the performance zone. The artist invited the performers to focus on their breathing and gradually relax their muscles, while under the film, the participants slowly changed poses, creating shifting silhouettes. According to one of the participants, Atari, in an interview with the MDR television channel, the sensation under the stretched film was like «being tightly wrapped in a blanket from all sides».

From Embryo to Crucifixion: Malstaf's Visual Language

In describing the work, the artist compares the participants' silhouettes sometimes to an embryo, sometimes to a crucifixion—two images that set the amplitude of perception: from a state of primary, almost animalistic security to connotations of suffering and sacrifice. The organizers of the SILBERSALZ festival see the performance as a way to comprehend how the feeling of protection combines with vulnerability: the film simultaneously hugs and squeezes, protects from the outside world and deprives of freedom of movement. It is precisely this contradiction, according to Malstaf's intention, that becomes the central emotional experience for both the performers and the spectators observing the process from the outside.

SHRINK 01995: Thirty Years in the History of a Single Installation

The numbers in the title of the work refer to 1995, when Lawrence Malstaf created this installation and performed in it himself for the first time. Since then, the project has gone through dozens of exhibitions in various countries and contexts: among the most prominent are participation in Paris's Nuit Blanche, an annual contemporary art festival, and a presentation at the Frankfurter Kunstverein. Thus, by the time of the performance in Halle, «SHRINK 01995» had ceased to be an experimental novelty, becoming an established performative object with its own history and accumulated cultural context, which each new exhibition complements and reinterprets.

The SILBERSALZ Festival and the Role of Performance in the Media Space

The SILBERSALZ festival, which unites science and media, traditionally includes programs in which the physical presence of the body becomes a tool for communicating with the audience. Malstaf's performance fits into this logic: the viewer does not merely observe an object but becomes a witness to a living, irreversible process in which breathing, muscle tension, and gravity work as artistic materials. For Halle and its residents, the participation of local volunteers in the work of an international artist additionally enhances the effect of involvement: the performance ceases to be an «alien» event and becomes part of the local cultural experience.