M HKA Ensembles

Installation, stad: 760 x 41 x 80 cm, bouwput: 540 x 270 x 80 cm.

Collection: Courtesy Bart Prinsen.

The maquette Denkbeeld voor een restruimte (iets voor onderweg) ontdaan van werkkracht (2009-2013) was triggered by the disappearance of an apartment block in the social housing estate 'Luchtbal' on the northern outskirts of Antwerp. As a giant model, made entirely from iron wire, this architectural study hangs suspended in space. The empty, now virtual construction allows the probing eye free rein. The visitors' participation is important, as indeed the piece is best explored by walking along it. As if one penetrates a force field, each visitor in his or her personal way bridges the intervals between the objects in this 'staged' space. The maquette extends through more than a single room at El Hotel Eléctrico.

In the artist's own words: “The spaces that arise are partially transparent, open to the imagination; you're plunged into an illusion of reality. The images that come into being influence each other and the space, and this creates an estranging dimension of illusory spaces. (...) With these installations I make sites you can describe as sort of external space of my memory that you can walk through and get a physical sense of space, as it were, one that can be enhanced according to your own blueprints."