"Callimachus"

installation, 2019

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material: plastic, wood, sculpture,styrofoam

1meter diameter on 3m High

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Vansteenkiste has been researching the relationship between our body and the home. In this research he sees space as a 2nd skin. In various projects he investigates the relationship between people and architectural elements. This applies very clearly to this work.
 

"A freeborn Maiden of Corinth, Just of Marriageable age, was attacked by an illness and passed away. After her Burial, her nurs, collecting a few little things which used to give the girl pleasure while she was alive, put them in a basket, carried it to the tomb, and laid it on top, covering it with a roof-tile so that the things might last longer in the open air. This basket happened to be placed above the root of an acanthus. The acanthus root, ... when springtime came round put forth leaves and stalks in the middle, and the stalks, growing up along with sides of the basket, and pressed out by the corners of the tile through the compulsion of its weight, were forced to bend into volutes at the outer edges.

 

Just then Callimachus (Greek sculptor) whom the Athenians colled (Catatechnos) for the refinement and delicacy of his artistic work, passed by the tomb and observed the basket with the tender young leaves growing around it. Delighted with the novel style and form, he built up some columns after that pattern for the Corinthians, determined their symmetrical proportions, and established from that time forth the rules to be followed in finished works of the Corinthian order."

(Vitruvius 1960, 104-106(Book 4, Chapter 1, 9-10)

 

 

Nature Unveiling Herself Before Science (La Nature se dévoilant à la Science) is an allegorical sculpture created in 1899 in the Art Nouveau style by Louis-Ernest Barrias. 

 

A special thx to Sander Alblast and EKWC and Fablab Brabant for technical support.