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Location:BAC ART LAB, Vital Decosterstraat 102 (meeting space)
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Accessibility:This location is not wheelchair accessible.
An intimate diorama of smoke, sound and light takes you into a paradoxical story where presence and absence meet.
Light, smoke and sound are fleeting phenomena. We perceive them, but cannot grasp them. They are simultaneously present and absent. This diorama by Els Viaene offers focus to that shimmering aspect of reality: ephemerality. She creates an intimate interplay between those three fleeting phenomena, making the invisible visible. The light — which in itself is not visible — makes the smoke visible; the smoke, in turn, makes the sound visible. In fact, there is no-thing in the box, and yet at the same time so much is happening. The artist brings these paradoxes into speculation. Is there more than just what we see and hear?
Please note: The work has a duration of 24 minutes and is to be experienced individually. Space is provided to wait for a while if needed.
At the end of the nineteenth century, Leuven architect Augustin Van Arenberg erected an impressive new laboratory building for the university, the Institute of Bacteriology. Animals were needed to develop medicinal serums in the building. Therefore stables, dog kennels and other animal compounds were located at the rear. In the 1950s, the university’s bacteriological research moved to the Rega Institute in the Minderbroedersstraat. The Institute of Bacteriology was subsequently redeveloped several times. Since 2016, the building has been used as an incubator for contemporary arts at KU Leuven, first under the name ‘BAC studio’, today as ‘BAC ART LAB’.
Text: Liesbet Nys (KU Leuven)
2025
➤ Concept and realisation: Els Viaene
➤ Electronics and programming: Elias Heuninck
➤ Object and mechanics: Koen Daems
➤ Co-production by Werktank & STUK
➤ With the support of the Flemish government
