Specters of the Future
Specters of the Future
Specters of the Future is the first on-site exhibition of the Doel Festival, encompassing both the entire village and the festival itself.
Through the tumultuous history of the village, it explores the consequences of economic choices on society and the environment, while highlighting heritage preservation and collective energy within communities. Capturing this moment of profound transition that Doel is currently undergoing and exploring its future potential.
Specters of the Future will take part in the festivities and is designed to be in harmony with its context while playing a crucial awareness-raising role. It is an immersive experience that transforms the streets into a dynamic hub of artistic expression.
Specters of the Future pays tribute to this collective force while showcasing the inherent artistic and sculptural potential of the location and its history. It is an invitation to delve into its layers and structures, to become modern-day archaeologists and collectively rethink the future in a different light.
It is both a commemorative and festive moment, drawing inspiration from the painful moments in Doel’s past. These complex subjects are approached with a touch of lightness and humor, inviting the public to share these reflections together, create meaningful encounters, and expand their perspectives towards the world and others. Play and subversion are favored tools for creating a conducive ground for experimentation, capable of sparking debates.
Belgian artist Antoinette d’Ansembourg takes us into a strange world through a life-sized installation. She invites us to explore a forbidden realm, marked by uncertain temporality, where debris and plants coexist in hostile environments, revealing the potential for transgenic transformation of nature.
At the heart of the village, the igloo emerges as a symbolic refuge. Composed of refrigerator doors, emblems of overconsumption, its interior remains modest yet welcoming, offering a haven of resilience and, above all, resistance. This inclusive space was created by Benoît Christiaens, a nomadic French artist, inviting us to dream of a new world rooted in ecology, solidarity, and equality, despite colossal challenges.
Sacred chants and profane lyrics resonate in the distance, emanating from the sound and video installation by Léo Luccioni. These songs are written in the name of brands, symbols of our globalization, paying homage to what represents power today and what will disappear tomorrow. Here, materialism is considered a spirituality, and capitalism a religion, worthy of contemplation.
French artist based in Belgium, Emma Cogné invites us to dive into an alternative network that reimagines boundaries, tracing winding lines that define the architectural contours of places. These networks and connections with uncertain lines are the beginnings of a metamorphosis.
The duo of artists, :mentalKLINIK, originally from Istanbul and now based in Brussels, plays with ambiguity and media and capitalist codes to immerse us in an intriguing game. Their installation “DOEL WILL” raises questions, even discomfort, while entertaining us, creating a disturbing feeling. Is it an advertisement, an invitation, or perhaps the future of Doel? This installation urges us to reexamine our perception of things, art, and media, while prompting us to reflect.
As we wander the streets, we are surprised by the street-poem sculpture designed by Prosper Legault, a French artist based in Paris. His installations capture the essence of globalization and its excesses, illustrating how contemporary metropolises integrate and merge a multitude of elements and diverse cultures.
Antoinette D’ansembourg
From the ground, with love
2023
In-situ installation
A humid ecosystem teeming with life has sprung up here, out of time and out of sight. Discarded PVC pipes, scraps of electrical wire and soil clay found themselves attracted to each other, driven by opposing forces. The materials twisted and intertwined in synergy, forming a new entity in mutation. These new hybrid elements between nature and industrial debris, these gigantic flowers and plants are now expanding in these neglected places.
Is this an omen? Is it a prototype, a beta version of what the traces of a land made of debris and battered nature are destined to become, when everything is depopulated?
Thanks to Wiernerberger for its generous contribution by providing all the clay for the installation.
Benoît Christiaens
On the plundered and pillaged blue planet by the suicidal expansion of the human race, the igloo serves as a metaphor for a space of survival in the face of climate change and the disastrous failure of the Western socio-economic model. Constructed using refrigerator doors (symbolic safes of overconsumption), its interior is simple yet warm, aiming to be a space of resilience and, above all, resistance – where everyone is invited to come together and dream about building a new world that is more ecological, supportive, and egalitarian.
Benoît, a nomadic artist, travels the paths of artistic expression, carrying with him his 60 years of experience. In his campervan, he shapes poetic installations, giving a second life to abandoned objects and weaving stories of wonder and reflection on our consumerist society. His work embodies his profound commitment to ecology, resilience, and questioning the dominant socio-economic model.
Emma Cogné
Striped path
2023
In-situ installation
We’re all nocturnal butterflies. In a city consumed by the capitalist demon, a resistance labors. The alternative network takes form, redefining supple boundaries. A line with an uncertain motif. At the path’s end, a string of pearls stands, reminiscent of processionary caterpillars. It winds through Doel and adorns the corners of houses. In their nightly realm, we witness the initial stages of a metamorphosis.
Leo Luccioni
Karaoke, Egregorien Song
2021-2022
“To profane is to make the ordinary sacred.”
Between desire and rejection, profane and sacred, Léo Luccioni develops installations where the material world is disrupted. His art is polysemic and allegorical, encouraging critical reflection, inviting reinvention and surprise. With a counter-poetry that is both popular and existential, he questions the absurdity of mass production as well as the illusion of a material ecstasy promoted. These installations oscillate between entertainment with benign appearances and latent gravity that can resurface at any moment.
This album consists of eight original compositions created in collaboration with composer Line Luccioni and typographer Laurent Muller. It denounces materialism and globalization by presenting them as a religion or spirituality. These eight sacred chants with profane lyrics are written in the name of brands that symbolize our globalization. They are the only understandable words in the world and here they embody a new multinational language. Each song is a tribute to what represents power today and what will disappear tomorrow. Here, materialism is considered a spirituality, and capitalism as a religion, worthy of contemplation.
:mentalKLINIK
DOELWILL
2023
“DOELWILL” is a fictional advertising campaign by :mentalKLINIK artist duo as their art form for an illusory investment project, installed in the ghost town of Doel. Embracing the role of counter-co-operators, :mentalKLINIK immerses itself in the post-truth era by adopting the persona of a construction company. Through this guise, they provide a thought-provoking and whimsical vision of a utopian, beyond-binary regimes, renewable luxury, and clean future initiative, resembling a paradise-like concept. They employ a manipulative language borrowed from capitalistic opportunistic promises, utilizing AI-generated imagery to cultivate a post-truth aesthetic that evokes ambiguity and bemused awareness. Their oxymoron-laden approach unveils the concealed reality of gentrification through artwashing, shedding light on isolated freedoms.
True to their name, :mentalKLINIK consistently stirs rumours surrounding their presence. Would you consider investing in DOELWILL?
AI-Generated Images and Graphic Design by Ant Barras. Thanks to Base Design.
Prosper Legault
La Funèbre Laverie Chinoise devenue pizzeria
2017-2018
Prosper Legault’s practice resides at the intersection of sculpture, poetry, and music. Through the assembly of disparate elements collected during nocturnal wanderings through the streets of Paris, he creates captivating sculptures. His installations are often referred to as «urban poems.» By gathering abandoned signs or reclaimed urban furniture from his urban explorations, he composes sculptural works where lights, signs, and words that punctuate contemporary cities collide, often with a touch of humor, offering them a new status, a fresh way of being perceived. This same process is reflected in his musical practice, approached from a freestyle angle, where words flow uncontrollably.
The sculptures, much like the songs, are puzzles of discarded objects, where fragments of found materials find new life and renewed meaning.
Specters of the Future celebrates this urban environment imbued with nostalgia and guides us in an exploration, inviting us to follow the upheavals of our time, examine the scars of the past, and anticipate the apprehensions that are emerging for the future.
Subsequently, the exhibition moved to Brussels, specifically to Espace Triphasé, where it was presented as a retrospective and immersive installation.
Specters of the Future was curated by Zoé van den Boogaerde.
Thanks to the support of Embelco, Movingideas, Ledconnect, Wienerberger without whom Specters of the Future would not be possible.
