Technical sheet
Read moreRead less- Location
- Ieper
- date
- 2018
- Partners
- Conrad Willems (visual artist) (http://www.conradwillems.com/)
- context
- Part of "kunstenfestival Sporen", Ieper, 3-7 september 2018
- Photos
- Cedric Verhelst
- Status
- Executed
Incision III (bolwerk)
Two hollow towers wrapped around trees on a bulwark, built during a whole week using only locally compressed earth.
The bulwark is a massive human manipulation of the landscape. The landscape presents itself as being natural: it is overgrown, the ground is earth, on one site natural looking slopes appear, on the other site a wall meanders around water. The landscape is artificial however. The site has been designed. The moment one pays attention, the symmetry pops into focus. A massive bulk appears a second time further along the path, mirrored. And so the tree, also a natural element, seems to been mirrored on top of the two bulky walls.
Trees as markers, as anchor points. The tree has a limited scale compared to the massive landscape, but in this detail the setup of the whole thing becomes clear, the designed symmetry, the planned strategy.
The trees are being marked. The situation is temporarily, at the time of the built up, being clarified, even to the careless visitor. The trunk thickens. Around the trunk of both trees, hollow shafts are being built. The blocks consist of locally mined earth, the turf still on top.
The blocks are being cut out of the turf locally. The more the towers rise during the week, the more the landscape is being punctured, pragmatic determined zones where the turf has been removed, the shapes of the block. No material was added to the site, only displaced, just like the earth of the bulwark probably originated from the adjacent ditch.
The two towers have the same system and the same design, but cannot possibly be the same. There are too many conditions, especially natural ones, that prevent this. Each block is different, each stacking unique. The two existing trunks differ from one another. Just like the site itself, the installation floats somewhere in between natural and artificial, between constructed and organic.
Apart from the actual end result the installation is mostly about the performance of the making itself; the labour of extracting and compressing , the battle of the two towers that rise each on their own during the week, the progress of the other tower always within eyesight.
Installation was realised on top of the bulwark of Ieper, in the week of 3 to 7 September 2018, as part of the art festival Sporen.
