Herzele, Belgium
HOVE Brick Factory
Belgium’s Arpia landscape and art group recently acquired a disused brick factory in the Herzele region. The godfather of Arpia, Marc Antrop, a Ghent-based author and advocate of a holistic approach to the world’s rapidly changing landscape, encourages guest artists to produce works reflective of a site-sensitive way of working. At Arpia’s first outdoor sculpture event, four artists were invited to respond to the landscape around Sint-Lievens-Esse.
Swiss artist Kari Joller dug next to the main building, creating three steps leading down into the earth and three steps leading back to the surface. A second element consisted of a tree with “steps” spiraling up its trunk from the ground. (A collaged tree element at the top came from a Swiss tree, suggesting the idea of nature exchange between different regions of Europe.) As suggested by the title, Ritual Path, this stairway linking earth and sky enabled Joller to move into the earth and then upward to the tree top, adding a performative element to the concept…see the entire review in the print version of September’s magazine.
