Choreographing Cloth: Textile Automata by Pinaffo & Pluvinage
In the work of Pinaffo & Pluvinage, textiles are never static. They breathe, sway, awaken and withdraw, animated by time, air and carefully calibrated mechanics. Since forming their studio in 2015, French duo Marion Pinaffo and Raphaël Pluvinage have developed a distinctive practice that sits between design, fine art and engineering, using simple materials and intuitive systems to reveal the poetry of movement. Trained as designers, they are drawn to the physical realities that underpin the digital world, exploring how automata, repetition and mathematical logic might converse with human sensitivity and imagination.
'Voutes et Volutes'. © Pinaffo & Pluvinage
Over the past decade, their work has been exhibited internationally, from the Centre Pompidou and the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris to the Triennale di Milano and Design Museum Holon. Increasingly, textiles have become a part of their kinetic language: light, fragile, and gently responsive, fabric here seems to offer the ideal medium through which to make motion visible.
Fanions et carillons (2023) © Pinaffo & Pluvinage
Commissioned by l’Abbaye de Fontevraud, Fanions et carillons (2023) is a monumental mixed-media installation that rose through the vertical space of the Chapelle Saint-Benoît. Comprising fourteen silk pennants mounted on painted wooden structures and animated by discreet motors, the work remains inert for long stretches of time before coming gently to life on the hour and half-hour.
Fanions et carillons (2023) © Pinaffo & Pluvinage
One by one, the pennants awaken, twisting, lifting and folding into fleeting configurations. The mechanics are deliberately rudimentary, using rotational and pendulum movements rather than complex choreography—yet the effect is lyrical. Like a set of bells that chime without sound, the installation replaces music with motion, producing what the artists describe as a “symphony of fabrics.” Each cycle is brief and unrepeatable, a rhythmic interruption that transforms architectural space into a moment of contemplation.
© Pinaffo & Pluvinage
A similar sensitivity animates Voûtes et Volutes, recently shown at the Centre Pompidou and conceived to mark the reopening of the Grand Palais. Suspended above visitors, around twenty silk pennants are attached to a delicately dyed wooden frame and set into motion by bespoke motors. Here, the textiles trace arcs and spirals through the air, recalling rhythmic gymnastics ribbons, laundry caught in a passing breeze, or Loïe Fuller’s celebrated Serpentine Dance. The movement unfolds like a mechanical ballet: light, fluid and hypnotic, yet underpinned by rigorous testing and control. The silk, which was chosen for its extreme lightness, responds to the smallest currents of air, its rustle often the only sound in the space.
Across both works, Pinaffo & Pluvinage demonstrate an ability to orchestrate textiles as temporal, performative elements. Fabric becomes both material and event, inviting viewers to slow down, look up, and experience motion as gentle, dancing, rhythmic wonder.
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Further Information:
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Image Credits:
Lead: Pinaffo — Pluvinage, Fanions et carillons , 2023, Mixed media installation (4 x 2 x 7m) painted wood, motor, silk, electronic.
All further images as credited in captions.