SUPER DEMOCRACY - The Senate of Things

Three cultural institutions enter into a dialogue with the Belgian Senate during the exhibition SUPERDEMOCRACY, which is on display throughout October. BPS22 in Charleroi, BOZAR in Brussels and M HKA in Antwerp provide a cultural dimension to the Senate’s current issues.

1.10.2017 - 31.10.2017

Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven / AMVK

(c)Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven
Carrel 5 (Coromandel, Disturbed 2), 2015
Installation , 202 x 240 x 60 cm
wooden cabinet on wheels: meranti plywood, casein paint and mixed media

"A carrel is a kind of separated cupboard that also serves as a database – it’s a moving study table. In the Middle Ages, carrels were found in monastic libraries, where monks used them to isolate themselves from the environment's noise.

The first carrel I made for a crematorium, the next three were for an exhibition at Zeno X Gallery. They were shown together with large PVC collages, based on quotations from the mystic Marguerite Porete and on Karol Szymanowski’s composing manner. Each of the carrels stands for a step in the development of data processing machines: they are computers, in other words.

Their titles are: Enigma, Colossus, Connection Machine and Coromandel Disturbed 1 and 2. The first was an encoding machine, the second a decoding machine, and the third was launched as a revolutionary idea to put the processing system (the processor) precisely where the information is stored: in the memory. This way, the memory becomes the processor in the computer. I drew a parallel to the stages of a human life."

− AMVK