fleuve perdu
– a small creature slides on the surface of a beton tube piercing the underground. Cracks are getting wider. She is one of the acid river´s rare inhabitants visible to the naked eye. The river valley is drilled in thousand spots and densely covered with a shell preventing the natural absorption of rain water into the ground. Squeezed. Managing the unmanageable.
fleuve perdu is boiling within the frame of my ongoing artistic research on water manipulation around Brussels. La Senne, now hidden underground, is operated inside the tubes and tunnels. I contemplate on the larger than human lifespan time frame and the potential power forced underground. It is a matter of time, when the river will blow as big as it did centuries or thousands years ago, taking the valley back.
10 000 drillings of ground around Brussels; underground waters; thirsty; shhhhhhhh
21 springs of water; 86 ornamental and 76 drinking fountains, layers, topology, renderings, GRILL#, small snail, overflow, groundwater body, La Senne was culverted 150 years ago, valle de la Senne
The exhibition is supported by the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux and KULT XL Ateliers.
Practical information
Welcome to the opening on Thursday, the 9th of June 2022 from 18:00 till 21:00!
Address: Rue Wiertz, 23, 1050 Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium
Access: Bus (lines 34, 80), Accessible to people with reduced mobility
Exhibition: 10.06.2022 – 19.06.2022
Opening hours: Monday-Thursday: closed, Friday-Sunday: from 12:00 to 18:00
Bio
Kristina Sedlerova Villanen (b. 1987) is interested in the inconsistency of human nature, the attraction of humankind towards building unequal systems, creating concepts and the need to believe in them. She works with geological sediments, human made poorly degradable physical matter, immaterial sources and language deposits. She makes transitions in raw materials and the information history they are loaded with, unfolding the structures behind hierarchies and ownership history of natural resources. Her works can be described as emotionally loaded transitions in perishable matter.
Kristina is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts Master’s degree program in Sculpture and Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture degree program in Scenography both in Helsinki, Finland. She has been exhibiting at Oksasenkatu 11 Helsinki, Park Tilburg, Outo Olo Helsinki, Art au Centre #3 Liège, Van Eyck Open Studios Maastricht, Kunsthalle Helsinki, Titanik Gallery Turku, MUU Kaapeli Gallery Helsinki, Eemil Art Museum Lapinlahti, Colombo Art Biennale Colombo, FISAD 2015 Turin, Exhibition Laboratory Helsinki, Taiga-Space Saint Petersburg and Sorbus Gallery Helsinki. Kristina is based between Helsinki and Brussels.
Find out more about Kristina Sedlerova-Villanen’s residency KULT XL Ateliers.