Filtered space

Palais des Beaux arts / Charleroi, 2001

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Permanent installation: print on glass, 5 sound systems, 5 microphones, 5 coloured seats, computer and algorithm. 

Public commission

Entitled Filtered Space, this project was achieved in 1999 in partnership with Lhoas & Lhoas architects. The task was twofold:  on the one hand, they had to redefine the external appearance of this cultural building, and on the other hand, the functions of the interior spaces. The artist very literally translated the architects’ programme by applying a large plan of the building to the new façade, entirely made of glass. By its discreet but apparent presence on the façade, this artwork engages with the city. The artist reinforces the architects’ intention to guide a wider public to the new services located inside the building through the transparency of the façade.

However, Alec De Busschère’s intention does not stop there: the project includes, in addition to a visual aspect, an auditory dimension. On the plan, five coloured pictograms in the form of a microphone refer to five different sound sources inside the building: the concert hall, the exhibition rooms, the media library, the congress hall and the cafeteria. The captured sounds are then processed by computer and reemitted through five coloured seats placed in a transit area at the entrance of the building. With his artistic concept, De Busschère not only formally echoes the architects' project, but also reinforces, in terms of content, the vision of the commissioner - the democratisation of the cultural offer…

Katrien Laenen

« L’art dans l’espace public. Les pouvoirs publics comme commanditaires», L’art en Belgique depuis 1975 (Florent Bex dir.), Fonds Mercator, Antwerp, 2001, p. 166-180.

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