The falling darkness in the evenings at the MAS is usually already very photogenic, but now it is given extra cachet by the seven illuminated columns that have been on the Hanseatic city since Thursday. The initiators behind the art project are the Antwerp artist Adalbert Gans and Axel Daeseleire of art collective Adamava. “We are all going through a dark period with corona, but there is light at the end of the tunnel,” the Antwerp actor explains the symbolism of the art installation.
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Jonas rosquin
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Night falls at the MAS, the seven intriguing monolithic columns bathe in a red glow. “We are all going through a dark, historic period. Our way of life has changed a lot in the past year and a half, our freedom has been curtailed and we have all ended up in a kind of isolation,” says Axel Daeseleire. “We are bombarded with reports of infections and numbers, but the mental impact on people is often ignored. Artists have been bursting with creativity lately, but not much had been done with this fact. We wanted to change that with our ‘Beacons of Hope and Light’, where we want to bring people together again. There is light at the end of tunnel. Let’s hope some variant won’t stop that now.”
Daeseleire and Gans engaged a number of well-known word artists who provide each column with a personal text. These are not the least: Tourist LeMC, Tom Lanoye, Jeroen Olyslaegers, Hilde van Mieghem, Vitalski and Maud Vanhauwaert. Daeseleire himself also got into his pen and wrote a poem that is now on a sign near one of the seven columns. “I am toying with the idea of actually applying those texts to the columns at a later date.”
Axel Daeseleire also wrote a poem that adorns one of the seven columns. — © Nattida-Jayne Kanyachalao
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The corona crisis has also taken on a very personal side for Axel Daeseleire, after he was infected and seriously ill at the very beginning of the outbreak. In their own words, this fact played no role in the realization of the project.
ALSO READ. Axel Daeseleire: “After ten days in a coma, I got out of bed like a half-crippled man”
The monoliths will flank the MAS until 1 September. They then move briefly to the Verbeeck – Van Dyck gallery, after which the art collective wants to auction the columns separately. “We want to donate a large part of the proceeds to a number of charities. We are thinking of vzw Mothers for Mothers, the Princess Máxima Foundation and an orphanage in Cambodia.”
–Tourist LeMC’s poem. — © Nattida-Jayne Kanyachalao
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–Tom Lanoye’s poem — © Nattida-Jayne Kanyachalao
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