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365

Quai 10 and La Vigie, Charleroi, Belgium

2016

LAb[au], Manuel Abendroth, Jérôme Decock, Els Vermang

8 letter display, 284 x 1200cm

metal casing, custom tailored displays and electronics

credits

realisation: LAb[au]
engineering: Utile
comission: City of Charleroi, Asphalt

history

2016 : LAb[au] has been declared the winner of the urban art competition

abstract

365 days a year, each day one random word, 365 words a year. On the roof the Quai 10 building facing the the city ring and main train station of the Belgian city Charleroi, an 8-letter display is mounted. The choice of words is driven by a generative system randomly choosing one letter after the other but re-launching the query if the constituted string can’t be found in a French, German, Italian, or English dictionary. In this manner, there is only a word equal to a meaning shown each day on the top of the building: when ‘denotata’ (sense) and ‘data’ (semiosis) combine an auto-poetic machine is formed addressing the passer-by's interpretation and associations to read the urban context besides the daily routine.

text

365

A series of words that change every day on the roof of the former Banque Nationale building. Meet the Brussels collective LAb[au].

My name is Manuel Abendroth and I'm one of the founding members of the artist group LAb[au], which was set up in 1997 and is still based in Brussels. There are 3 of us: Els Verlang, Jérôme Decock and myself. Our background is in architecture, but we've migrated into an artistic practice that has led us to become a fully-fledged artists' collective. We work in 3 different formats. There's the ‘Installation’, which are works that are displayed temporarily in institutions. We have works that are more of the ‘fine art’ type, which are shown in galleries. And a format of permanent installation in an architectural context, which we call site specific works, 'Integrations’.

The title of the project, 365, already reveals an important parameter of the work. It displays one word per day, in reference to the 365 days of the year. The project was selected in a competition launched by Asphalte, which we won. The locations for the works had already been selected, namely the Vigie and Quai10.

The title of the project, ‘365’, already reveals an important aspect of the work. It displays one word per day, in reference to the 365 days of the year. The project was selected in a competition launched by Asphalte, which we won. The locations for the works had already been selected, namely the Vigie and Quai10.

The ‘365’ project uses a system that randomly searches for combinations of letters. The characters are displayed one after the other and the system looks in the dictionary to see if the combination displayed exists. The machine searches for the combination at midnight.

What interests us in this work is the idea of concrete poetry. In other words, the word is displayed and can be read in many different ways. They give people the chance to tell themselves a story. This can create things that are quite disturbing, funny or meaningless. But for us, it activates a new form of reading of the city.

public artworks by the Belgian artstudio LAb[au], laboratory for art and urbanism, atr&language, art&architecture crossing conceptual art, kinetic art, digital art, konkrete

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