Since 2008, artist David Bergé has been making Walk Pieces, during which he guides participants through an immersive experience in silence along a precise trajectory and within a precise time frame through textures and infrastructures that comprise the city. This Walk Piece took place at the invitation of M HKA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp.
The Seefhoek district gained its identity as a working-class district around 1860, during the late Industrial Revolution, when two beers (popular among sailors) – known as seef and eel- were locally produced. In the last decades, Seefhoek became a neighborhood populated by more than 100 nationalities.
Belgian artist Panamarenko lived in this neighborhood between 1970–2003. Nowadays, M HKA owns his house/studio, and takes care of the collection of objects contained in it. This Walk Piece by David Bergé commissioned by M HKA refers to this remarkable part of the museum’s collection as an exceptional example of an artist’s archive.
This time, Bergé will be exploring the district of Seefhoek. The route is based on a quasi-scientific, almost mathematical system imprinted throughout the 20th century as a code in Bialetti coffeemakers. In making the Walk Piece, Bergé layered this code over the city map of Seefhoek and used it as a blueprint to guide the participants through spaces both public and intimate, which are often difficult to access.
An Almost Mathematical Adventure in Seefhoek, 2021
4 Walk Pieces by David Bergé
commissioned by curator Joanna Zielinska
at M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp
framework: The Image Generator
last picture: detail of the score
sept 23 at 5:15 PM,
sept 24 at 7:00 AM and 5:15 PM,
sept 26 at 5:15 PM
Gizem Karaosmanoglu (assistance)
Kobe Burdack, Erik Mercelis (safety instructors)
Cille Loene, Geert Goiris (pictures)