For the duration of one year, Brussels’ Quartier Louise is enlivened by CITYSCAPE, an impressive wooden sculpture by Belgium artist Arne Quinze. The project is a joint operation with car brand MINI , who sponsored the art project. Quinze: ‘MINI has managed to change the face of the city. It’s a vehicle that prompts reactions, since it’s almost impossible not to notice. MINI , to me, is a good example of successful communication.’ Simultaneously with the prelaunch of MINI CLUBMAN and during Design September 2007 (design events running from September 9 to 30), Quinze’s CITYSCAPE will be open to public from September 14 onwards.

The 18 meter-high artwork is built on 12 meter-high wooden stilts. Carrying the same ambiguous traits as her earlier siblings, of which UCHRONIA (a giant wooden sculpture, last year built in Nevada desert) is the most striking example, CITYSCAPE attracts Brussels inhabitants to this outskirts, acting as a magnet. It’s encouraging us to interact, boosting new energy to a somewhat discarded neighbourhood. Floating in the air, it provides a shelter to curious visitors, a place for contemplation and silence.

Arne Quinze: ‘CITYSCAPE resembles a frozen movement; speed caught in time. It is a powerful means of communication, in many ways. If you look at it from a distance, pure movement seems to keep the volatile structure in the air. Sunrays play with the wooden beams; a game of light and shade creates ever-changing patterns.
Its immense size – 40 meter long and 25 meter wide – absorbs you. CITYSCAPE calls for instant reactions, it’s impossible not to feel anything.’

Who wonders what will happen to all the used wood in a year from now: CITYSCAPE’s ‘bones and muscles’ will be fully regenerated and recycled.

More at: www.cityscape.be