Installation #1
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2000
Three installation #1 – #2 – #3 were inaugurated on three different dates in three different locations: The old North Station (Martini Tower) in 2000, the Brussels Central Station in 2001, the South Station and the North Station in 2002.
This is an artistic concept around the North-South Junction in Brussels (structure 3 in 2002 coincides with the 50th anniversary of the North-South Junction).
NORTH STATION BRUSSELS
Installation #1 opened in May 2000 as a tribute to the Martini Tower. The glass front of the tower’s covered passageway was entirely dressed in an entanglement of green adhesive tape, which created very different visions in reaction with the light (transparent, reflecting, opaque), also between daytime and nighttime.
It was all about creating some kind of big synthetic skin that evolved with time, evoking the relationship between the public and the covered passage, the place Rogier and the urban fabric of the North quarter.
This work of recovering architectural surfaces with adhesive strips, which form a veritable synthetic skin, finds its reason for being within the city. This work enhances that which unites the concept of “urban landscape”. On the urban fabric level as well as that of the production of these huge plastic skins, this work refers to man in the city, to the influence of the environment on the anonymous individual caught between daily motion and isolation, between determination and loss of identity.
The approach to this work is both morphological and topographical.
The laminations, from the moment they were produced, started their transformation either abruptly or slowly under the influence of various external factors, linked to the environment (humidity, wind, rain, light, etc.) or even to the reaction of passers-by, eager to get close, to touch or get involved with what is on display.
The transformation phenomenon of these installation over time evokes the same historical evolution of the sites chosen.
Installation #1 is completed by photography bearing witness to the operation. It is achieved by photographer Serge Verheylewegen and is displayed in the central gallery, on the ground floor of the Martini Tower.
Photo : Serge Verheylewegen.
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