Circles of Universal Language: a conversation with Steeven Macal

We speak with Steeven Macal about his project ‘Intertwinements,’ which explores the concept of belonging in Eindhoven. Using a distorted but familiar object, Steeven symbolises how personal and collective identities adapt in evolving urban landscapes, encouraging residents to reflect on their shared experiences.

“My journey, marked by uprooting and re-rooting, revealed to me that integration is never simple.”

Steeven Macal

Steeven Macal, a product designer from Guadeloupe, integrates Caribbean heritage into his work, deconstructing conventional ideals of ‘normal.’ He challenges archetypes and fosters reflection on diversity through his use of shape, gesture, and material.

Can you tell us more about your ‘Intertwinements’ installation and how your journey shaped the design?

‘Intertwinements’ is an intimate reflection on identity and how it weaves, distorts, and entangles through interactions with others in a constantly evolving environment. With this installation, I explore the complex nature of connections between individuals in a city like Eindhoven, where every encounter and each interaction subtly but profoundly shapes our identities. The blocks, symbolising individual identities, are linked by threads that represent both constraint and connection, reflecting the tension between personal integrity and the need to adapt and integrate.

My journey, marked by uprooting and re-rooting, revealed to me that integration is never simple. Before leaving Guadeloupe, I believed integrating into a new environment would come naturally, driven solely by my will. The experience of being uprooted taught me that our cultural and identity heritage accompanies us, shapes us, and influences how we fit into a new community. 

Could you share more about your creative process and the material choices you made?

The resin-coated foam blocks, with their raw and organic texture, reflect the struggle of ‘fitting in’, especially the effort to belong to a whole without losing one’s singularity. The charcoal, both fragile and resilient, symbolises this transformation. It burns, and consumes, but also purifies, illustrating the resilience of individuals in the face of external forces attempting to shape them.

The resin-coated foam refers to the raw material of our being, that part of us that is shaped by our interactions with others. The use of charcoal, on the other hand, is a metaphor for the ongoing struggle between vulnerability and strength. It evokes our ability to change under pressure and to absorb shocks without fully breaking. 

“The tensions these materials create in the work remind us that identities, though influenced by external forces, retain an inherent resilience.”

Steeven Macal

What message do you aim to convey with your ‘Intertwinements’ project, and what do you hope the audience takes away from it?

The threads that connect the blocks tell a story of duality: they constrain as much as they unite. They demonstrate how relationships bind us together, but also demand sacrifices and adjustments. These tensions, far from being solely negative, are necessary to create strong communities. The form and arrangement of the blocks, evoke the social and cultural networks built in a city. Here, identities cluster, rub against each other, mix, and deform under the pressure of the thread, just as we adapt, sometimes bending ourselves, to fit into a community.

The installation embodies this quest for balance between individual identity and collective life. It asks: how far can we go to preserve what makes us unique while integrating into a larger whole? The audience is invited to see these blocks as a reflection of their own experiences, a mirror of the compromises necessary for coexistence in a social environment. The threads stretched but never broken, symbolise the fragility of these relationships that transform us. It shows that it is often at the boundary between constraint and unity that the strongest communities are born.

“The project is an invitation to reflect on the very nature of our connections: they are neither perfectly harmonious nor entirely destructive.”

Steeven Macal

Connections shape our experiences, our relationships, and ultimately, our identities. This project is a tribute to the human capacity to adapt to reinvent oneself without ever completely disappearing, even under the pressure of societal constraints.

Location

Strijp-S area
Ketelhuisplein
Map No. B4

Open

Sat 19 Oct 11:00 – 18:00

Sun 20 Oct 11:00 – 18:00

Mon 21 Oct 11:00 – 18:00

Tue 22 Oct 11:00 – 18:00

Wed 23 Oct 11:00 – 18:00

Thu 24 Oct 11:00 – 18:00

Fri 25 Oct 11:00 – 18:00

Sat 26 Oct 11:00 – 18:00

Sun 27 Oct 11:00 – 18:00

Access Free