PRESS RELEASE
– 20.12.2020
ARTIST DUO DE JENZ ADDS ÔJINGLEÕ TO THE
BRUGESÕ CONCERTGEBOUW CIRCUIT
From December 20, 2020 onwards, a new
sculptural intervention is added to the Bruges ÔConcertgebouw CircuitÕ. Bell-View
& Bellen Spel, designed
by DE JENZ, adds playful tunes to the contemporary arts trail and invites
visitors to venture onto the roof, interact and spread the sound.
Bell-View & Bellen Spel
is a two part site-specific sculptural
intervention by DE JENZ, the artist duo Vibeke
Jensen and Santiago De Waele. The artwork invites the
public's curious and playful engagement on the roof terrace of the Bruges
Concert Hall.
Bellen Spel departs from 21 bronze
bells with a curious history. When a major fire in the Belfry destroyed the 39
bells of its carillon in 1741, new bells were cast by renowned bell-founder Georgius Dumery the same year.
The 21 bells were replacements made in the 1900s for the smallest bells in the Dumery carillon. In 2010 these 21 bells were themselves
replaced by exact replicas of the Dumery bells, and
donated to the Bruges Concertgebouw where they were temporarily installed on
the roof terrace in 2016. The artist duo was engaged to create a more inviting
and sculptural display.
Bellen Spel reframes 20 of the 21
discarded bells on the terrace, which has a panoramic view of the historic city
center from top of the eight stories tall Lantern Tower. Close to their former
residence, the redundant bells can now dialogue with their companion carillons
above the city roofs. The terrace becomes a stage where the muted voices of the
bells can be re-activated by the public. Two overlapping half circular
perforated slanting walls in frakŽ wood enclose the
base of the artwork. The bells, ranging from 20 – 42 cm diameter and 7-42
kilos, are mounted in round openings in the curved
walls. Each of the bells is unique with its own distinctive pitch
ranging from soh to doh,
and together spanning almost 2 chromatic scales.
Bellen Spel
functions as a communal bell-ringing instrument, or carillon, activated by one
or more individuals using the supplied rubber tipped sticks. The visitors can
invoke sounds from the rejected bells while moving
around into and through the open space in the middle of the sculpture.
On the north side of the terrace, a wooden
sculpture is attached to one of the concrete columns supporting the roof. Bell-View introduces the visitors to a surprising view. By peering into
a narrow vertical opening, visitors will see a brass bell with the Zeebrugge port and the sky as a backdrop. As the sculpture
bends around the column, a periscope mirror technique turns it into a viewing
device. From the larger opening at the other end, a visitor might trigger the
framed bell to chime, and perhaps spot someone peeking into the device. The
visitors become part of a performative act played out
around a former fire boat bell. This bell will be placed in dialogue with the largest of
the 21 discarded bells from the Belfry carillon, which will be displayed in the
port of Zeebrugge. When ConcertgebouwÕs partner, Port
of Zeebrugge, finishes this part of the installation,
a common launch will take place.
Bell-View & Bellen Spel
is part of Concertgebouw
Circuit, and one of a series of new works that will be finalized by summer
2021, supported by ConcertgebouwÕs partners
Nationale Loterij, Stad Brugge and Port of Zeebrugge.
About the artists:
DE JENZ
was founded in the fall of 2020 as a full-scale collaboration between the two
artists Vibeke Jensen and Santiago De Waele. The duo met in 2014 when Jensen was invited to make
a public art project at Triennale Brugge,
for which De Waele is the technical director. Their shared ability to think
Ôoutside the boxÕ and the high skills of his team resulted in DiamondScope, a 7
meters tall multifaceted mirror sculpture facing the Belfry on the Market
Square for the 2015 edition of the triennale. Later
on they collaborated on building the sculptures for JensenÕs solo exhibition Earth Sharing at Kunsthall
3.14 in Bergen, Norway (2018).
Vibeke
Jensen is a Norwegian borne international artist based in
New York for two decades before relocating to Europe where she has studios in
Berlin and on a remote island on the west coast of Norway. She has a particular
interest in different points of view and positions of looking and for years
investigated the practice of surveillance and control of public space,
recognizing this as a central structural element of advanced urban cultures.
Spyglass, mirrors, lenses, secretly recorded video and Ôwhatever it takesÕ are
the ingredients she applies in constructing situations and sculptural
interventions that provoke a rupture in daily life perception and facilitate
the meeting of strangers.
Santiago De Waele is a Belgian artist who in his early
carrier designed and realized the subtropical swimming pool at Preston Palace,
Almelo, NL; and converted a never used nuclear power plant into a theme park in
Kalkar in Germany. Later, De Waele
for decades sourced his creativity into realizing well known artistsÕ work:
first for the Beaufort triennial sculpture project along the Belgian coast, and
for the last seven years as technical director and co-curator of Triennale Brugge. He is now stepping into his full potential
as a practicing artist with Vibeke Jensen in DE JENZ.
BELL-VIEW
& BELLEN SPEL
by DE JENZ
Concertgebouw Circuit
Concertgebouw Brugge, Õt Zand
34, BE-8000 Bruges
Wednesday – Sunday, 10.00 – 18.00
www.concertgebouw.be