Palimpsest
In the De Porre neighbourhood in Gentbrugge, passers-by can enjoy a light art installation located on the monumental cooling tower.
The work of art is entitled Palimpsest, which means a parchment that has been written on more than once. That is exactly what the artwork does: overwrite.
This light art installation is composed of two elements. The first element consists of a small ring in the stairwell of the local community centre. Letters continuously appear on this ring. A search engine that makes use of a Dutch dictionary then forms a random word with the letters. The second element is a large ring on top of the cooling tower that lightens up the found words between dusk and midnight. Local residents got the opportunity to add new words to the search engine. It is therefore possible that passers-by will read words such as 'Moscouviet', 'koekeloeren' or 'tsjiepmuile'.
This work of art has been realised by LAb[au] (Laboratory for Architecture and Urbanism), a Belgian artistic trio internationally renowned for their light art.