Kevin Trappeniers' minimal art installation Observatory invites, as a public shelter, the local community, passers-by and visitors to reflect on the precarious relationship between humans and their environment. A geodesic dome in the public space questions a redesigned urban landscape.
How caring are we still with our attention in a landscape of artificial interventions? Observatory is a symbolic space in between city and nature seeking and offering tranquillity.
National
Belgium
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It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
2020-04-01
As an individual
First name: Kevin Last name: Trappeniers Gender: Male Nationality: Belgium Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Pluimstraat 1 Town: Brussels Postal code: 1000 Country: Belgium Direct Tel:+32499364986 E-mail:kevintrappeniers@gmail.com Website:http://www.kevintrappeniers.be
Kevin Trappeniers' minimal installation Observatory is a ‘silent object’ that, as a public shelter, invites the local community, passers-by and visitors to reflect on the precarious relationship between humans and their environment. A geodesic dome in the public space questions a redesigned urban landscape.
Historically, the dome as a shape is often seen in Christian and Persian architecture, as it would hearten the mystical experience. The geodesic dome, a light yet remarkably strong structure made up of a network of interconnected triangles, was first designed by Walther Bauersfeld as part of a planetarium. Buckminster Fuller popularized the geodesic dome and used it for industrial buildings and exhibition spaces. Nowadays, the structure is easily used as a temporary object during public events and for glamping, and also as a protective structure against the weather for botanical gardens, closed ecosystems, greenhouses and even a future desire for domed cities. Observatory is a play on all of these functionalities.
The visitor can enter this place of retreat and withdraw from the surroundings while being in the center of them. “Observatory” embraces you as you sit on a bench and observe the landscape as if through a lens.
Sustainability
Anthropocene
Water scarcity
Climate
Shelter
The dome was made primarily out of domestic wood, and for the other materials local and used and/or recyclable materials were used to contribute to circularity.
The position we as humans occupy on the planet is one of the most pressing questions today. When we look at the dome from the outside, the person inside is invisible. The installation wants to thematically show us how easily we are erased, and the importance of reconnecting with natural spaces.
The installation triggers a catharsis when entered. From the outside nobody inside is visible and the work seems to be a strange object in the environment. Once inside, a unique viewing point is offered towards the world outside of the installation, while also stimulating inner reflection.
The dome offers a view of a filtered reality, and can be understood in two ways.
There is almost literally a filter laid on what you get to see, it is a filter that multiplies. You still see what forms the outside world takes, but you feel sheltered in a half-darkened vault, cherished in an open landscape. Alone in a bubble, but not isolated. As if these circumstances and this moment were created for you and you can make use of them as you wish. Briefly, briefly watching and then continuing your path. You can sit down and be still. It is not a literal silence though, the dome is permeable: sounds, wind and other weather conditions will enter it without too much effort. It is a silence that can be seen rather as a freedom, a freedom from having to interact with the world around you for a while except in an opportunity for contemplation and reflection; to dwell alone for a while and have the feeling of being invisible. A release from expectations that can produce an unprecedented silence.
Filtered reality is also one that is, as it were, stripped of the superfluous. Filtered and thus reduced to its essence; the lees sifted from the wine. The architectural elements in the interior of the dome are inspired by the philosophy of Zen Buddhism. The metal basin that describes the perimeter of the dome has a somewhat irregular shape, based on the Japanese Enso: "a circle drawn by hand in one or two uninhibited brushstrokes to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create it. It is at that moment that the reflection on nature and city is evoked.
Shared public shelters are accessible, free and hence affordable for all. The entrance of the dome is also made large enough for a wheelchair to enter. The installation is open to all people of our society, putting aside gender, age, cultural background, minorities, disabilities etc.
Conversations were held before, during and after the project with neighbors. Only through communication with locals we got to know the good and the bad, the highlights and problems of this transitional landscape they were living in. Partly isolated from and also in the landscape, this installation therefore questions our connection to our natural and constructed daily surroundings. How caring are we still with our attention in a landscape of artificial interventions? How do we model our natural and urban landscapes and how do they form us? It is a symbolic space in between city and nature seeking tranquillity.
The project was funded by the Flemish Government and the Vlaamse Waterweg, who manages and operates the waterways as a powerful network that contributes to the economy, prosperity and livability of Flanders. The project was first created for on an arts trail on and off the water throughout 13 towns and cities in Belgium. Sixteen national and international artists, architects and designers were invited on a trail of artistic discovery to reflect on water and landscape, and to engage into dialogue on the importance of water as an ever more precious commodity.
The project also was realized with the support of the city of Harelbeke, generously giving us the freedom to be critical.
The small-scale transdisciplinary installation was developed by an artist and an engineer, and their creativity combined showed us that imagination and fact can change the tiniest parts of the world. Thus the installation became is a pars pro toto for the world in general. Water, the use of space, and the use of temporary shelters all over the world are researched on a local scale.
The core of current economic logic and the threat of ecological crisis could lie here: where there is scarcity, fictionalized or real, the system will ensure that the scarce good gets into the hands of as few holders as possible. That and everything can be made into a commodity. It is not a lack of imagination that troubles humanity when air and water are traded. It is a lack of solidarity with our fellow humans and a lack of connection to a larger ecosystem. The dome places us for a moment amidst the movements of the water and plays with a change of perspective: it shows us as human beings large in the face of low water.
The innovative character lies in making public art a place to linger and reflect, whereas other public art is often either spectacular or negligible.
The project is a play on old and new, and mixed public art with public infrastructure. The dome places us for a moment in the midst of the movements of its surroundings and plays with a change of perspective: it shows us as human beings small in the face of what we build around us. Perhaps for a moment we are confirmed in our anthropocentrism, if only to point out the crushing responsibility that comes with that conviction.
The installation itself, the lookout that offers a view of the landscape in its various forms is permeable and is open and receptive to its environment: it is a lookout without judgment. The question then still arises as to whether the interventions in the landscape were thought through in a holistic way: with consideration and respect for all the organisms that have their habitat there and with attention to the long-term consequences of every decision that was made, but the question also arises as to whether our ecosystem and how it plays out up to the atmosphere is not much more indifferent and remains untouched in its essential being (Buddha nature); no human being who can do anything against it.
Every element of the installation can be copied and carried out in other spaces.
Inside the dome, minimal architectural elements engage into dialogue with the surrounding landscape. A low water basin encloses the visitor in the dome. On one occasion it was an echo of a peninsula and weir, and on another it echoed the surrounding pond and passing river. In a broadened scope it refers to continental landmasses separated by expanses of water.
Rainwater can seep through the dome and fall into the brimming basin, overflowing. Contrastingly, when rain remains absent, a dry landscape appears, leaving an arid impression for want of water. It is a reflection on the global ecological impact of humans on water and water on humans, subtly explored on local soil.
