public art experience

The subject selected by the Artistic Advisory Board for the residency 2014 is "transformation". The word "transformation" refers not only to change but to profound mutations, not only to changing forms but also to a metamorphosis into something entirely different, similarly to liquids turning into solids or matter turning into energy. Transformation describes the emergence of a new world from an older one whose traces slowly disappear as the mutation is completed. The new world is unrecognisable for those familiar with the old world - despite the fact that it has brought forth the new one. The process of transformation urges us to question our methods of maintaining our relationship with the past and our ways of remembering the past as much as our capacity to invent the future and confront the current global challenges (nature, culture, politics, economy and society). Transformation is "transform-action". It is the work of men and women, their creatures and creations. It is full of twists and turns, bearing the marks of the uninformed and irreversible choices we make. It is the result of a work in progress. It is also fundamentally cultural in that it touches upon our individual and collective moral values and conscience while potentially shifting the meaning of art in society.

The former Belval industrial site, located in the heart of Europe, is currently being redeveloped to accommodate the City of Science i.e. the University of Luxembourg and Public Research Centers with their laboratories, start-ups and communities of young students. It is a concentrated space where we can observe the birth of a world still to come. Its blast furnaces have become monumental sculptures, steel giants in a new hub of knowledge. Industry is making way for research and education. Cognitive capitalism succeeds industrial capitalism, promoting different values, productions and modes of valuation but also creating new contradictions and generating new tensions and exclusions. The Belval site questions the future as it is being built and the changes to come. What are the consequences of the decisions made here? How do we shape the generations that shape the future? How are concepts such as responsibility, production and knowledge transfer defined? Where is this leading us? The collision of worlds created on this site asks questions about the transformation of our societies and the always incomplete process of decay and creation.