A decon­struc­ted organ with infla­ta­ble sculp­tu­res fills the octa­go­nal KADOC cha­pel with medi­ta­ti­ve sounds.

The octa­go­nal KADOC cha­pel has excep­ti­o­nal acous­tics, with a very long rever­be­ra­ti­on. Such reso­nant archi­tec­tu­re as well as the monu­men­tal sound of church organs is pre­ci­se­ly what inte­rests artist Anouk Kellner. In her series Airchoirs, she starts from exis­ting his­to­ric organ pipes and adds infla­ta­ble tex­ti­le sculp­tu­res that bre­a­the in and out like lungs. Commissioned by Hear Here, she cre­a­ted a second instal­la­ti­on in this series tit­led Airchoir No. 2: Dirges for Coded Organ Voices. Like a choir, the sin­ging infla­ta­bles con­ver­se in the cha­pel. Their har­mo­nic reso­nan­ces rever­be­ra­te dif­fe­rent­ly in spa­ce owing to the acous­tic vaga­ries of the cha­pel. With Airchoirs, Kellner explo­res the boun­da­ries bet­ween the orga­nic and the non-orga­nic, bet­ween human emo­ti­on, our reli­gious past and con­tem­po­ra­ry elec­tro­nics. A medi­ta­ti­ve sound expe­rien­ce that invi­tes the lis­te­ner to intro­spec­ti­on and connection.

This Baroque cha­pel with an octa­go­nal ground plan and an impres­si­ve dome rose bet­ween 1641 and 1705 and was for a long time a pla­ce of pil­gri­ma­ge for Our Lady of the Fever. In 1871 the fri­ars minor took it into use. They enlar­ged the cha­pel and also added a con­vent buil­ding. That monas­tery was to ser­ve as a trai­ning cen­tre for the fri­ars minor who were were stu­dying phi­lo­sop­hy and the­o­lo­gy at Leuven University. In the second half of the 1980s Leuven University bought the cha­pel and monas­tery and in 1990 KADOC moved in. KADOC is a docu­men­ta­ti­on and research cen­tre for reli­gi­on, cul­tu­re and soci­e­ty at KULeuven. Since 2018, both the exte­ri­or and inte­ri­or of the cha­pel have been under­go­ing exten­si­ve refurbishment.

Text: Liesbet Nys (KU Leuven)