​Resource

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19/02/2021

online & Laken, Brussels (BE)

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Resource is a site-specific intervention within the Present series in which minimal interventions tackle the more elaborate question about how public space remains public, present and active. Both in times when the public infrastructure like theaters, concert halls, musea, religious buildings, … activate us to go out into the world we live in, talk about it and rethink it, and in times where gathering spaces have become less accessible or even inaccessible. These public places of collective movement are essential in our way of dealing with ourselves, other people and the community we shape together. Reclaiming and/or reusing these spaces is also what happens in the encouraging intervention that is Resource.

The small poetic action is located at the Sint-Anna bron in Laken, an older and symbolic site consisting of a fountain that is accessible by stairs leading to an intimate lowered terrace with tiered seating rising on all sides. The water of the source formerly had healing properties attributed to it, supposedly beneficial for the eyes, and against cramps and fever. The seating around the well can perfectly host about 30 people sitting in two tiered rows of stone, essentially creating a small outdoor amphitheatre, seemingly buried in the surrounding park. The structure is built below ground level and implies a humble attitude towards the world.

By having an accommodating and welcoming arena, the Sint-Anna well continuously displays its unused potential. In order to understand each other again and to enter into a dialogue, it is appropriate to withdraw to the safety of this cave-like forum. Not to be above the other’s opinion, not to look down on the world from a higher perspective, but on the contrary to take position at ground level, and to look for what lies underneath, what is growing below. The forest does not grow by nourishing only the biggest tree. A permaculture of society presupposes coexisting positions. 

The work uses the water from the source to remove the dirt, natural moss and exhaust gases on the walls of the space, leaving behind a message. The process does not harm the wall, it just cleans it. Over time, the surface will return to its prior state.

A concise sentence reflects on the site itself and the state of the community it is surrounded by. The distilled words inside the arena encourage dialogue - be it by the local community or occasional passers-by. It is an invitation however democratic in its call to action - it can be decisively ignored. The non-existent dialogues thus won’t echo or be amplified in this imagined parliament- typically the host for an assembly of voices- , pointing out the unfinished and vulnerable human task of entering into dialogue.