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Location:30CC/Kapel Romaanse Poort, Brusselsestraat 63
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Accessibility:This location is wheelchair accessible.
A landscape of brass subwoofers makes beaded chains dance up and down in random patterns.
As an artist, Franziska Windisch is interested in our perception of sound and in how poetic relationships can arise through sounds, materials, movements and words. This is beautifully expressed in her work On Random Walks. Eight subwoofer speakers with brass plates placed upon them are distributed across the marble floor of the Roman Gate Chapel. They are vibrated by infrasonic frequencies so low that they are inaudible to human ears. On the vibrating plates, small beaded chains begin to dance in unpredictable ways. As they jiggle, they form complex visual patterns that are constantly changing. This phenomenon of random knot formation comes from physics and is used to study the behaviour of DNA or RNA. The soundscape created by the jiggling of the chains reverberates persistently in the Gothic chapel.
In the 13th century, the Duke of Brabant, Henry I, donated land for the establishment of a hospice, a refuge for travellers, pilgrims and the poor. Gradually, it also took on the care of the sick of the city’s population. A reorganisation followed at the end of the 15th century under the leadership of Nikolaas Hellens. He attached a community of nuns to the hospital who followed the Rule of St Augustine. Renovations to the hospital buildings followed in the 16th century, with a new chapel and convent building. This three-nave late Gothic chapel in brick dates from this time. Later, fires destroyed parts of the complex. During French rule in the late 18th century, the monastic community was dissolved, and the hospice came into public ownership. Today, little remains of the original buildings. The 13th-century Romanesque gateway, the late Gothic chapel, the cloister and an 18th-century infirmary wing remind us of this rich care past.
Text: Erfgoedcel
2017 — revision 2025
➤ Materials: 8 subwoofer chassis, brass plates, bead chains, 3 drawings (ball point pen on paper, 33 x 52 cm)
➤ Production: Overtoon with the support of the Flemish Community
