Founded 2021
Valletta, Malta
Europe · Asia · North America
Exhibited Across
Featured Works
Biography
SPLACES is an art and science studio founded in 2021 by artist Andrey Shibanov and studio director Ekaterina Chistyakova. The studio’s curatorial programme is developed in collaboration with curator Khristina Ots. Working across scales — from collectible sculptural objects for interiors to permanent public sculptures for parks, museums, private collections and urban spaces — SPLACES creates contemporary sculptures that integrate nature, advanced technologies and scientific research, evolving through their relationship with the surrounding environment.
Since its founding, SPLACES has presented solo exhibitions, public commissions and sculpture projects across Europe, Asia and North America. The studio’s works have been exhibited in Italy, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, and featured by publications including Antennae, Aesthetica Magazine, Tatler Asia, Time Out Singapore, la Repubblica and Exibart.
Through sculpture, SPLACES investigates new ways of connecting people with the living world, combining traditional craftsmanship with custom-built technologies to create enduring sculptures designed for long-term public engagement and lasting cultural presence.
Practice
SPLACES creates sculptures that reveal invisible natural processes through form, light, sound and interaction. Rather than representing nature symbolically, each sculpture transforms environmental phenomena — such as wind, water, weather, bioelectric activity or human presence — into a living behaviour that unfolds in real time.
Every project begins with research into natural systems before developing through material experimentation, engineering, custom software, artificial intelligence, electronics and traditional sculptural techniques. Natural materials including willow, stone, wood and metal are combined with environmental sensing, generative sound and responsive lighting to create works that continuously change together with their surroundings.
The studio develops both permanent public sculptures and smaller sculptural works for interior spaces. Across all scales the focus remains the same: creating enduring sculptures that deepen the relationship between people, nature and technology while encouraging contemplation, ecological awareness and a renewed perception of the environments we inhabit.
MOLTEN Perspective
A SPLACES sculpture does not depict a natural process; it runs on one. FLUXATE reads live solar wind, magnetic storm and solar flare data and turns it into light and sound. Saulux makes wind visible and audible as a chime. Black Nidum uses environmental data to voice birds that no longer exist. data.relic lets thousands of visitor decisions erode a stone surface through robotic sandblasting. In each case the work keeps changing after the opening, because the thing driving it never stops.
That is an unusual proposition for a commissioner. Willow, stone, wood and metal are worked by hand and then given environmental sensing, generative sound and responsive light, so the result reads as sculpture rather than as screen-based technology, and it is built to hold a park, a square or a museum floor for years rather than for a festival week. The studio works at both ends of the scale: permanent public sculpture, and smaller pieces for interiors and collections.
For science museums, environmental programmes, sculpture parks and civic commissions looking for work that is materially serious and genuinely alive to its site, SPLACES puts craft and research inside the same object.
Explore the Artist
Themes
Ecology · Environment · Nature & Technology · Material Agency · Environmental Empathy · Perception · Light · Sound · Systems & Complexity · Transformation · Human-Machine Collaboration
Commissioning Information
Suitable for — Large-Scale Public Art Commissions · Civic & Public Realm Projects · Cultural Institution Commissions · Museum & Exhibition Contexts · Science Museums · Gallery Contexts · Light Festivals · Architectural Commissions · Research Partnerships · Hospitality & Luxury Environments
Industries — Arts & Culture · Museums · Festivals · Public Realm · Luxury · Tourism · Architecture · Government · Corporate · Environmental Programs · Research · Technology · Science Communication · Entertainment
Project Types — Commission · Permanent Installation · Temporary Installation · Festival · Workshop · Consultancy · Exhibition · Public Program · Educational Program · Research Collaboration · Public Art Program · Interactive Experience · Interactive Installation · Architectural Artwork
Interested in working with SPLACES?
Send an enquiry for a direct introduction. If it would help to think the project through first — scale, timeline, budget, site — ask us.
